tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357Tue, 07 Oct 2014 05:09:01 +0000#YoSoy132mexico-cityAntonio NegriIglesia Ortodoxa RusaInstitucionalizaciónItalian 1977 MovementMexicoMichael HardtPeña NietoPussy RiotRusiaarte protestaautogestionbecoming-princecapitalismocarta abiertaclase obreracontrol obrerocooperativismocrisis economicademocraciaironyla Otra Obreralanguagele langageleyes internetlucha sociall’ironiemouvement italien de 1977movimiento estudiantilmultitudmultitudeneoliberalismneoliberalismoneoliberalización de la universidad publica y privadanueva universidad incluyenteoctubre de 2012paro nacionalpatentespatrick-cuninghameprecarizaciónstudent-led-uprising-in-mexicothe commontodo el conocimiento para todostransversalismworkers' rightsyosoy132AUTONOMY-AUTONOMIAS-AUTONOMISMOMy writings and your comments on Italian Workers Autonomy/Autonomia Operaia, what I call "global autonomism" and neo-Zapatism in Mexico since 1994.http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)Blogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-7350789733593028822Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:15:00 +00002012-12-10T18:31:07.782-08:00NO A LA CRIMINALIZACIÓN DE LA PROTESTA EN LA UAM! NO A LA REFORMA DEL REGLAMENTO DE ALUMNOS DE LA UAM!<a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=441200492600899&set=a.106389489415336.11311.100001328572168&type=1&theater"> </a>Órgano informativo del Comité de Lucha de la UAM-X Edición Especial- No3 Dic.2012 NO A LA CRIMINALIZÄCIØN DE LA PROTESTA EN LA UAM! NO A LA REFORMA DEL REGLAMENTØ DE ALUMNOS DE LA UAM! Ei próximo martes 11 de diciembre, el Rector General de a UAM, Enrique Fernández Fassnacht pretende reformar el Reglamento de Alumnos de la UAM, con el propósito de criminalizar cualquier forma de manifestaci6n política dentro de nuestra universidad. La reforma no sólo esta enfocada al sector estudiantil, sino a toda la comunidad universitaria, es decir, trabajadores, estudiantes y académicos. Sabemos que esta intentona fascista está inmersa en el contexto del 1 regreso del asesino y corrupto PRI, y por Jo tanto, la represión inherente a este partido, regresa a todos los sectores de la población. La rectoría de la UAM, conociendo el potencial de movilización del estudiantado, esta previniendo cualquier descontento y lucha. por Jo que pretende imponer de manera Fast-track esta reforma. Aparte, cínicamente llama a crear el "Reglamento para la convivencia Universitaria", cuando Jo que propone es una clara represic5n a derechos elementales como la Libertad de expresión y de reunión. Pero, cuales son algunos de los puntos que pretende modificar la Rectoría? ARTICLO 8, FRACCIÖN XIII ARTICULO 9, FRACCIÖN x VIGENTE PROPUESTA Impedir o restringir el uso de las instalaciones de la Universidad. Este punto a reformar tiene el claro propósito de impedir y castigar cualquier paro o huelga en las instalaciones universitarias. Históricamente, los paros o toma de instalaciones han sido un medio de presión efectiva contra las constantes injusticias por parte de las autoridades. Por ejemplo, hace exactamente dos meses, el 2 de octubre, la comunidad de la UAM decidió realizar un paro de 24 horas contra la imposición del asesino Enrique Peña Nieto, contra la Reforma Laboral y en recuerdo de nuestros hermanos caídos en 1968, o un mejor ejemplo, hace poco más de un ario, la comunidad de la UAM-Xochimilco decidió tomar la División de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (DCSyH) en protesta por la imposición de Jorge Alsina. De aprobarse la reforma, se castigará futuros paros o tomas por parte de la comunidad universitaria. VIGENTE PROPUESTA Usar ö disponer de los bienes o instalaciones de la universidad para fines contrarios a su naturaleza u objeto. Actualmente, en la UAM-Xochimilco, existe el Cubículo Estudiantil "José Revueltas" espacio ganado por la lucha estudiantil y que ha servido como centro de reunión para diversas actividades estudiantiles, académicas, sindicales y de lucha social De aprobarse la reforma del Rector, este espacio desaparecería o cualquier otro espacio estaría prohibido para la organización política o la convivencia estudiantil como jardines o lugares que sirvan para talleres o reuniones de la lucha social dentro de la universidad. ARTICULO 8, FRACCIÖN VII VIGENTE Utilizar la violencia física como medio para la soluci6n a los problemas universitarios. PROPUESTA “Promover o ejercer violencia en la universidad" En el actual Reglamento de Alumnos, se especifica claramente que se castigar la "violencia física" como medio de soluci6n a los problemas dentro de la universidad. Con la reforma al reglamento, el termino "violencia" queda muy ambiguo y a consideración de las autoridades. "Violencia" será un cartel? violencia será leer un manifiesto, violencia será un mitin en la universidad? violencia será una caricatura que denuncia las injusticias en la Universidad? ARTECULO 9, FRACCIÖN VI VIGENTE PROPUESTA Son faltas de los alumnos, Perturbar el funcionamiento de los órganos colegiados o el desarrollo de las actitudes académicas o administrativas. Nuevamente las autoridades pretenden censurar cualquier acto de manifestaci6n en las universidades. Mítines, marchas, conciertos autogestión, son acciones constantes en nuestra universidad; de aprobarse la reforma, estos quedar prohibidos y de realizarse, serán castigados por las draconianas autoridades. Inclusive, manifestaciones en 6 órganos colegiados están prohibidos: no se podrán realizar manifestaciones de descontento en Consejo Académico como el que realiz6 la comunidad universitaria en junio de 2011 contra la imposici6n de Alsina, cuando decenas de estudiantes y académicos se - plantaron en medio de este órgano colegiado y demandaron un alto a la imposición. ¡ABAJ0 LA REFORMA FASCISTA AL REGLAMENTO DE ALUMNOS! ¡NO A LA CRIMINALIZACION DE LA PROTESTA EN LA UAM! COMITE DE LUCHA UAM-X http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/12/no-la-criminalizacion-de-la-protesta-en.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-610655072852843681Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:41:00 +00002012-12-04T19:41:47.862-08:00Repudian uso excesivo de la fuerza pública (La Jornada, cartas)<a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/12/04/correo"><br /><div class="sumario" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;">Repudian uso excesivo de la fuerza pública</div><div class="s-s" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-ind</a>ent: 0px;">A la opinión pública nacional e internacional: los académicos de la UAM repudiamos el uso excesivo y arbitrario de la fuerza por los cuerpos policiacos el pasado 1º de diciembre.</div><div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3ex;">Consideramos que los hechos están encaminados a la criminalización de la protesta social y representan un retroceso de décadas sobre las libertades ganadas en luchas históricas en la ciudad de México y en todo el país.</div><div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3ex;">El movimiento #YoSoy132 ha demostrado convicción pacifista. Demandamos que se aclaren los hechos y que se explique la intervención del llamado grupo<em>Relámpago</em>&nbsp;y de la posible infiltración de provocadores. También demandamos que se finquen responsabilidades en los casos de abuso de autoridad en todos los niveles de gobierno. Exigimos la inmediata liberación de todos los detenidos.</div><div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3ex;"><em>Hugo Aboites, Arnulfo Arteaga, Juan Esteban Barranco, Luis Bueno, Miriam Calvillo, Alejandro Cerda, Sandra Compeán, Patrick G. Cuninghame, Catalina Eibenschutz, Mariela Fuentes, Minerva Gómez, Héctor A. Guerrero, Miguel Meza, Araceli Mondragón, Mario Ortega, Luis Ortiz, Raquel Ramírez, Guadalupe Staines y Silvia Tamez</em></div>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/12/repudian-uso-excesivo-de-la-fuerza.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-3725589932433259377Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:36:00 +00002012-11-20T15:36:19.493-08:00# YoSoy132, "a movement that is here to stay": Luis Hernandez Navarro<br />11/19/2012<br /><br />Amaranta Cornejo Hernández<br /><br />Published in the online magazine Desinformémonos<br /><br />During the presentation of the book <i>#Yosoy132. Voces del movimiento </i>[#I am 132. Voices of the Movement-translator’s note/TN], written by the team of Desinformémonos, Trinidad Ramirez of the FPDT of Atenco, said that this movement allowed her to learn that her organization and the students could move and walk together. Luis Hernandez Navarro, coordinator of opinion and columnist for the [left-wing daily-TN] newspaper La Jornada, Trinidad Ramirez, of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), Julio Cesar Colin, a student of the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) and member of the assembly + de 131 [autonomous but within # YoSoy132-TN], Karla Perez, representative of the Assembly # YoSoy132 Xalapa, and Gloria Munoz Ramirez, La Jornada columnist and director of Desinformémonos online magazine, participated in the presentation of <i>&nbsp;#Yosoy132. Voces del movimiento</i>, a book written by a team of reporters and published online by Bola de Cristal.<br /><br />During the event, held at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Luis Hernandez and Trinidad Ramirez agreed that the book reflects not only the diversity of opinion which exists within the # YoSoy132 movement, but also the vision of a journalism from below and to the left, since its inception three years ago that the online magazine Desinformémonos has cultivated.<br /><br />Luis Hernandez welcomed the publication of the book because, he said, "it is an attempt to understand the social tsunami # YoSoy132 done almost simultaneously with the actual development of the movement.” The journalist added, "It is an achievement that is enshrined in the fluent and passionate analysis of 97 testimonies ". Hernandez Navarro described the publication as "a historical document that speaks of a movement that is here to stay, as a watershed in the social and political life of the country.”<br />Gradually the auditorium "Crescencio Ballesteros" of the Universidad Iberoamericana &nbsp;filled up, a landmark for the presentation, because it was precisely here at this university where on May 11 the spark flew that started #YoSoy132: the public questioning by students of the then PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto for his role [as Governor of the State of Mexico, one of the 30 states making up the federal republic-TN] &nbsp;in the acts of violent repression in Atenco on 3 and 4 May 2006, and their subsequent slander by the leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who accused them of being thugs and of being bused in from outside [in fact it was the PRI, as is its customary practice, who bused in hundreds of its members to intimidate the students, so provoking their anger and heightening the tension during Peña’s visit –TN].<br /><br />As diverse as the movement itself, those attending the event were people and students of all ages, young, old and young at heart, coming from various parts of the city and the country. Student and popular # YoSoy132 assemblies were present, including representatives of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), the National Arts School (ENAP), the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), University of the Cloister of Sor Juana, the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) and the Movement of Aspirants Excluded from Higher Education (MAES); members of the Assemblies of Chicago, London, Montreal, Quintana Roo and of UNAM postgraduates sent their greetings through a live chat transmission.<br /><br />The projection of the collective production "Atenco, the wound remains open", in which Alberto Cortes, Luisa Riley, Gandhi Noyola, Ana Solares, April and Marc Bellver, among others participated, showed the relationship between the struggles of the people of Atenco and of the youth in #YoSoy132. &nbsp;This 16 minute-long documentary presents the profound questioning of Peña Nieto, but especially portrays the dignity and resilience of the people of the town of San Salvador Atenco [about 30 km outside Mexico City-TN], who since 2000 have organized and resisted the [government’s-TN] onslaught to dispossess them of their lands in order to build an international airport on them.<br /><br />The symbol of struggle of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) is the machete, and the Atenco residents carry it with them always, to each event and mobilization. So they came to the Ibero [a private, Catholic university-TN] with machetes and shouting slogans in defense of the land and for the freedom of political prisoners. While participating Trinidad Ramirez of the FPDT stressed that the #YoSoy132 movement had helped all of them to learn that her organization and the students "could move together, walk together " and explained that for her "the diversity of opinions is a similarity in both the #YoSoy132 and the FPDT because in a process of dialogue and mobilization and movement organization, everyone, each in their own way, has been creating ways to foster a deeper reflection on long-term changes to ways of living and that's where the connection points."<br /><br />Trinidad also thanked the members of + de 131 because they showed that "at the Ibero private college there are people who do believe in social justice", and said that "gives joy and also helped to shatter class stigmas, it showed that even in private schools there are those who fight and show solidarity, and that's why people identify with the movement."<br /><br />Gloria Munoz Ramirez, managing editor of the book and director of the online magazine Desinformémonos, thanked the 97 people who gave their time and trust to be interviewed during the preparation of # YoSoy132. Voices of the movement, and explained that the collectively made text would not have been possible without the team of magazine reporters she directs, and the volunteer work of a team of collaborators and transcribers of dozens of hours of interviews.<br /><br />The La Jornada columnist also highlighted the contributions among the student movement and its intention to create horizontal participation in the assemblies. "That's why," she said, "that each of the people who contributed their testimony speaks personally. “Therefore, she explained, it is looking to break with the tradition of leadership in social movements”. Munoz Ramirez reiterated that the work of the entire team of Desinformémonos starts from the premise that there is no neutrality in journalism.<br /><br />Julio Cesar Colin, of the assembly + de 131, noted that "the diversity of voices that make up the movement are reflected in the book "and emphasized the character of the social movement as "a succession of struggles before and after involving an attitude of learning.”<br /><br />As speaker of the assembly # YoSoy132 Xalapa, Karla Perez reflected on the changing political dynamics that have emerged from the movement. "These are new ways of relating," she said,"having to do with decentralization and autonomy." The student said that "the assembly of Xalapa became a space that articulates the participation of other social movements active in the state [of Veracruz-TN].”<br /><br />Javier Sicilia's [journalist and poet whose son was kidnapped and murdered probably by narcos in 2011-TN] Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, during the event sent greetings to #YoSoy132 members: "Dear all: I would love to be at that presentation. Unfortunately I am out of the country on a long retreat, and I cannot be with you. But I hug you a lot and I'll be there with you in heart. Thank you for all you do for the dignity of the country and with much love."<br /><br />The bishop of Saltillo [in Coahuila, a state in the north and one of the most affected by the sharp increase in drug-related violence since 2007-TN] Raúl Vera, sent a letter that was read between two of the participations, expressing great appreciation for what they were doing to rebuild this nation. “The Mexico many of our politicians are designing is a country without a future, built to offer a privileged few opportunities to live in abundance, through the hunger and poverty of the majority of Mexicans," wrote the religious activist, “but I encourage you not to falter before the selfishness and greed beyond measure of the bullies who today manage our country for their benefit, they see you as dangerous enemies who must be overcome, leading them to cause divisions among you, discrediting you through their control of the media, blocking your initiatives, closing doors."<br /><br /><i># YoSoy132. Voices of the movement</i> comes when no movement is massive anymore, when each has less commercial media attention, while within its organizational structure &nbsp;the questions what have we done? what shall we do? are circulating. This is a book that gives clues to the memory of the movement itself, and the presentation opened the space for outsiders to give their view of #YoSoy132´s situation, six months after its abrupt emergence. At the end of the presentation, the lecture hall was full of people chatting and exchanging opinions. # YoSoy132 members who were reunited at the Ibero commented on the event and wondered who would go to the National Assembly to be held the following day in the city of Xalapa, where the publication will also have its second appearance.<br /><br />Source:<br />http://desinformemonos.org/2012/11/yosoy132-un-movimiento-que-llego-para-quedarse-luis-hernandez-navarro /<br />Translated by Patrick Cuninghame, Mexico City, 20 November 2012: pcuninghame@gmail.com/@ pcuninghame<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WEQPDo0B-m8/UKwT1xSHPTI/AAAAAAAAAT4/jvD092VMJ5Q/s1600/yo-soy-132-391x260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WEQPDo0B-m8/UKwT1xSHPTI/AAAAAAAAAT4/jvD092VMJ5Q/s1600/yo-soy-132-391x260.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>========================================================================<br /><br />#YoSoy132, “un movimiento que llegó para quedarse”: Luis Hernández Navarro<br /><br />Amaranta Cornejo Hernández<br />desInformémonos<br /><br />Durante la presentación del libro #Yosoy132. Voces del movimiento , escrito por el equipo de Desinformémonos, Trinidad Ramírez, del FPDT de Atenco, dijo que este movimiento le permitió aprender que su organización y los estudiantes podían movilizarse y caminar juntos.<br /><br />Luis Hernández Navarro, coordinador de Opinión y articulista del periódico La Jornada; Trinidad Ramírez, del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT); Julio César Colín, estudiante de la Universidad Iberoamericana (Uia) e integrante de la asamblea +de 131; Karla Pérez, representante de la asamblea #YoSoy132 Xalapa; y Gloria Muñoz Ramírez, columnista de La Jornada y directora de la revista electrónica Desinformémonos, participaron en la presentación de #YoSoy132. Voces del movimiento, un libro escrito por el equipo de reporteras y reporteros de la publicación en línea y editado por Bola de Cristal.<br />Durante el evento, realizado en la Universidad Iberoamericana,, Luis Hernández y Trinidad Ramírez, coincidieron en que el libro refleja no sólo la pluralidad de voces que existen al interior del #YoSoy132, sino la visión del periodismo de abajo y a la izquierda que desde su surgimiento, hace tres años, la revista electrónica Desinformémonos ha cultivado.<br /><br />Luis Hernández agradeció la publicación del libro porque, dijo, “es un intento para entender el maremoto social que representa #YoSoy132 en una temporalidad casi simultánea al desarrollo del movimiento. El periodista agregó, “que es un logro que se consagra en una lectura fluida y apasionada de los 97 testimonios recogidos” para su escritura.<br /><br />Hernández Navarro calificó la publicación como “un documento histórico porque habla de un movimiento que llegó para quedarse, por ser un parte aguas en la vida social y política del país”.<br /><br />Poco a poco se fue llenando el auditorio “Crescencio Ballesteros” de la Universidad Iberoamericana, lugar emblemático para la presentación, pues fue precisamente en esta casa de estudios donde el 11 de mayo se prendió la chispa con la que inició el #YoSoy132: el cuestionamiento público de estudiantes al entonces candidato presidencial Enrique Peña Nieto por su responsabilidad en los actos de la violenta represión en Atenco el 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006, y las posteriores calumnias de los directivos del Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), quienes los acusaron de ser porros y acarreados.<br /><br />Diversa como el movimiento, así fue la asistencia al evento: personas de todas las edades, estudiantes y no, jóvenes de edad y jóvenes de corazón, venidos de varios puntos de la ciudad y del país. Asambleas estudiantiles y populares del #YoSoy132 estuvieron presentes, entre ellos representantes de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), el Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), la Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (ENAP), la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH), la Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, el Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) y del Movimiento de Aspirantes Excluidos de la Educación Superior (MAES); integrantes de las asambleas de Chicago, Londres, Montreal, Quintana Roo y Posgrados de la UNAM enviaron sus saludos mediante el chat de la transmisión en vivo.<br /><br />Con la proyección de la producción colectiva “Atenco, la herida se mantiene abierta” –en la que participan Alberto Cortés, Luisa Riley, Gandhi Noyola, Ana Solares, Abril y Marc Bellver, entre otros– fue evidenciada la relación que existe entre la lucha del pueblo de Atenco y el joven #YoSoy132. En 16 minutos, este documental presenta la raíz del cuestionamiento a Peña Nieto, pero sobre todo retrata la digna resistencia de las y los pobladores del pueblo de San Salvador Atenco, quienes desde el 2000 resisten de manera organizada los embates contra el despojo de las tierras que pretendían arrebatarles para la construcción de un aeropuerto.<br /><br />El símbolo de lucha del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT) es el machete, y los habitantes de Atenco lo llevan siempre consigo, a cada evento y movilización. Así llegaron a la Ibero: machetes en mano y gritando consignas en defensa de la tierra y por la libertad de los presos políticos.<br /><br />Durante su participación Trinidad Ramírez, del FPDT, destacó que el movimiento #YoSoy132 permitió que se aprendiese que su organización y las y los estudiantes “podían movilizarse juntos, caminar juntos”, y explicó que para ella “la diversidad de opiniones es una similitud entre el #YoSoy132 y el FPDT porque en un proceso de diálogo y movilización el movimiento y la organización, cada uno por su lado y su forma, han ido creando caminos para propiciar en su interior una reflexión más profunda de los cambios a largo plazo, los cambios a la forma de vida, y es ahí donde se encuentran los puntos de unión”.<br /><br />Trinidad agradeció también a las y los integrantes de +de 131 porque demostraron que “en universidad privadas como la Ibero existen personas que sí piensan en la justicia social”, y eso, dijo “da alegría y además ayudó a resquebrajar estigmas de clase, pues demostró que en las escuelas privadas sí hay quien luche y apoye, y es por eso que la gente se identifica con el movimiento”.<br /><br />Gloria Muñoz Ramírez, coordinadora editorial del libro y directora de la revista electrónica Desinformémonos, agradeció a las 97 personas que brindaron su tiempo y su confianza para ser entrevistados durante la elaboración de #YoSoy132. Voces del movimiento, y explicó que la hechura colectiva del texto no habría sido posible sin la participación del equipo de reporteras y reporteros de la revista que dirige, y el trabajo voluntario de un equipo de colaboradores y transcriptores de decenas de horas de entrevistas.<br /><br />La también columnista de La Jornada, destacó entre los aportes de este movimiento estudiantil la intención de crear participación horizontal desde las asambleas. “Es por eso”, dijo, “que cada una de las personas que aportó su testimonio habla a título personal”. De este modo, explicó, se busca romper la tradición de los liderazgos en los movimientos sociales. Muñoz Ramírez reiteró que el trabajo de todo el equipo de Desinformémonos parte de la premisa de que no existe neutralidad en el periodismo.<br /><br />Julio César Colín, de la asamblea +de 131, destacó que “la diversidad de voces que integran al movimiento están reflejadas en el libro” y enfatizó en el carácter del movimiento social como “una sucesión de luchas previas y posteriores que implican una actitud de aprendizaje”.<br /><br />Como representante de la asamblea #YoSoy132 de Xalapa, Karla Pérez, reflexionó acerca de las dinámicas políticas que cambiaron a partir de que surgió el movimiento. “Son nuevas formas de relacionarnos”, dijo, “que tienen que ver con la descentralización y la autonomía”. La estudiante aseguró que “la asamblea de Xalapa se convirtió en un espacio que articula la participación con otros movimientos sociales activos en los estados”.<br /><br />Javier Sicilia, del Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, envió durante el evento un saludo a los integrantes del #YoSoy132: “Queridos todos: me encantaría estar en esa presentación. Por desgracia estoy fuera del país, en un largo retiro, y no podré estar con ustedes. Pero los abrazo mucho y estaré allí con ustedes desde el corazón. Mil gracias por todo lo que hacen por la dignidad del país y por tanto amor”.<br /><br />El obispo de Saltillo, Raúl Vera, envió una carta que fue leída entre una y otra participación de los presentadores nto y grande aprecio por lo que hacen para reconstruir esta nación. El México que una buena parte de nuestros políticos están diseñando es un país sin futuro, construido para ofrecer a unos cuantos privilegiados oportunidades de vivir en la abundancia, a través del hambre y la pobreza de la gran mayoría de los mexicanos”, escribió el religioso y activista, “pero los animo a no desfallecer pues el egoísmo y la ambición sin medida que tienen los abusivos que hoy manejan a nuestra patria para su provecho, los ven a ustedes como enemigos peligrosos a quienes hay que vencer, induciendo la división entre ustedes, desprestigiándolos por medio del control que ejercen en los medios de comunicación social, bloqueando sus iniciativas, cerrándoles las puertas”.<br /><br />#YoSoy132. Voces del movimiento llega cuando el movimiento ya no es masivo, cuando tiene cada vez menos atención de los medios comerciales y cuando al interior de su estructura organizativa ronda la pregunta ¿qué hemos hecho, qué haremos? Se trata de un libro que da indicios para la memoria del movimiento mismo, y la presentación abrió el espacio para que gente externa diera su opinión sobre situación del #YoSoy132, a seis meses de su abrupto surgimiento.<br /><br />Al final de la presentación, el auditorio y el pasillo de salida estaban llenos de personas que charlaban e intercambian opiniones. Integrantes del #YoSoy132, que se reencontraron en la Ibero comentaban el evento y se preguntaban quién iría a la asamblea nacional que se realizaría al día siguiente en la ciudad de Xalapa, a donde también llegó la publicación en su segunda presentación.<br /><br />Fuente: http://desinformemonos.org/2012/11/yosoy132-un-movimiento-que-llego-para-quedarse-luis-hernandez-navarro/<br /><br />http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/11/yosoy132-movement-that-is-here-to-stay.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-7954282307331717242Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:44:00 +00002012-11-20T09:44:33.498-08:00Resistiendo al imperio Autonomía, autonomismo y movimientos sociales latinoamericanos<a href="http://148.206.107.15/biblioteca_digital/estadistica.php?id_host=12&amp;tipo=ARTICULO&amp;id=7610&amp;archivo=12-533-7610oow.pdf&amp;titulo=Resistiendo%20al%20imperio.%20Autonom%C3%ADa,%20autonomismo%20y%20movimiento%20sociales%20latinoamericanos">http://148.206.107.15/biblioteca_digital/estadistica.php?id_host=12&amp;tipo=ARTICULO&amp;id=7610&amp;archivo=12-533-7610oow.pdf&amp;titulo=Resistiendo%20al%20imperio.%20Autonom%C3%ADa,%20autonomismo%20y%20movimiento%20sociales%20latinoamericanos</a><br /><br /><br />Resumen<br />Centrándose en los movimientos sociales autónomos contemporáneos en México,<br />Brasil, Argentina y Bolivia, este artículo intenta evaluar críticamente los conceptos<br />de imperio, imperialismo, multitud y resistencia para entender mejor el desafío que<br />enfrentan las fuerzas sociales y políticas que organizan oposición y proponen<br />alternativas al neoimperialismo de Estados Unidos y al capitalismo global en<br />América Latina. Después de una discusión de los conceptos centrales de autonomía<br />y movimiento social se examinan los conceptos controversiales de “imperio” y<br />“multitud” en Hardt y Negri y Coco y Negri, junto con los contra argumentos<br />en defensa de los conceptos marxistas clásicos de imperialismo, clase obrera,<br />frentismo, socialismo y soberanía nacional de los críticos de Hardt y Negri, como<br />Boron, Katz y Callinicos. Luego se consideran las varias formas de resistencia<br />autónoma en América Latina, tanto contra el “Consenso de Washington” neoliberal<br />como contra el neoliberalismo “progresista” de los países del Mercosur. Se debate si<br />el Estado nacional en América Latina todavía tiene un papel de resistencia contra<br />los planes de expansión del “imperio”, una pregunta que no se puede evitar en<br />un continente donde el “nacionalismo de izquierda” sigue siendo la principal<br />ideología izquierdista, a pesar del zapatismo en México, la izquierda autónoma<br />de los piqueteros en Argentina, el movimiento de los campesinos sin tierra en<br />Brasil, y el indigenismo autónomo en todo el continente.<br />palabras clave: América Latina, autonomía, autonomismo, biopolítica, capitalismo,<br />imperio, imperialismo, movimientos sociales autónomos, neoliberalismo,<br />obrerismo, multitud, resistencia.<br /><br /><br />Abstract<br />Focusing on contemporary autonomous social movements in Mexico, Brazil,<br />Argentina and Bolivia, this article attempts to evaluate critically the concepts of<br />empire, imperialism, and resistance to better understand the challenges facing<br />social and political forces that organize opposition and propose alternatives to<br />U.S. neo-imperialism and global capitalism in Latin America. After a discussion of<br />the core concepts of autonomy and social movement examines the controversial<br />concepts of “empire”, “multitude”, “biopolitics” and “commons” in Negri &amp; Hardt<br />and Negri &amp; Coco and the counterarguments in support of the concepts related<br />to imperialism, working class, frontism, socialism and national sovereignty of<br />its critics like Boron, Katz and Callinicos. The article then considers the various<br />forms of autonomous resistance in Latin America, both against the neo-liberal<br />“Washington Consensus” and against the neoliberalism of the “progressive”<br />countries of the Mercosur. A debate on whether the national state in Latin<br />America still has a role in resistance against the expansion plans of the “empire”,<br />a question that cannot be avoided in a continent where “left nationalism” remains<br />the main leftist ideology, despite the Zapatistas in Mexico, the independent left<br />of the piqueteros in Argentina, the movement of landless peasants in Brazil, and<br />autonomous indigenous movements throughout the continent.<br />key words: Latin America, autonomy, autonomism, autonomous social movements,<br />biopolitics, capitalism, empire, imperialism, multitude, neoliberalism, resistance,<br />workerism.<br /><br />http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/11/resistiendo-al-imperio-autonomia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-7370413731210013138Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:18:00 +00002012-11-18T23:18:46.985-08:00Autonomia in the 1970s: The Refusal of Work, the Party and Power<a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-939465671.html" title="autonomia in the 1970s: The Refusal of Work, the Party and Power | HighBeam Research">autonomia in the 1970s: The Refusal of Work, the Party and Power</a><br /><br /><br />Autonomy is the ability to give an adequate rule to desire, and not the art of begrudging the world.<br /><br />Franco Berardi (Bifo)1<br /><br />Not only is it freedom, but an anthropological growth that causes an accumulation of desires, of necessities, of will; it is, principally, a collective phenomenon, it is deeply cooperative. Autonomy is of the common.<br /><br />Antonio Negri2<br /><br />- INTRODUCTION<br /><br />The Italian new social movement of the 1970s, Autonomia (Autonomy), was a key collective actor in late twentieth-century Italian protest and social conflict. It played a significant role in the conflictual and relatively rapid transformation of Italy from a recently industrialised …<br /><br />http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/11/autonomia-in-1970s-refusal-of-work.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-7775068036657257435Mon, 19 Nov 2012 02:51:00 +00002012-11-18T21:03:34.520-08:00Resistance to precarity in knowledge production. The case of a Mexican state university 1<h3>di Patrick Cuninghame</h3><h2></h2><div style="text-align: right;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>We are the post-socialist generation, the post-cold war generation, the end of vertical bureaucracies and of information control</i><i>.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>We are a global (…) movement, which brings forward the democratic revolution started in 1968 and the struggle against&nbsp;</i><i>the neoliberal dystopia at its peak today.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>We are eco-activists and media-activists, we are the libertarians of the Net and the</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>metroradicals of urban spaces, we are the transgender mutations of global feminism, we are the hackers of the terrible real.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>We are the&nbsp;</i><i>agitators of the precariat and the insurgents of the cognitariat.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>We are anarcho-unionists and post-socialist.&nbsp;</i><br /><i>We are all migrants&nbsp;</i><i>looking for a better life.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>And we do not recognize ourselves in you, gloomy and tetragon layerings of political classes already defeated in&nbsp;</i><i>the XX century.</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Manifesto Bio/Pop del Precariato Metroradicale<span style="font-size: x-small;">2</span></i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>1. Introduction</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The precarity of Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) manual, administrative&nbsp;and academic workers was one of the main causes of SITUAM’s<span style="font-size: x-small;">3</span> historic strike between&nbsp;February and April 2008, the longest since the university’s foundation in Mexico City in&nbsp;1974. However, the conflict has remained unsolved and it seems that this process will&nbsp;continue to provoke unrest and tension among workers until it is solved, probably after&nbsp;another form of strike or industrial dispute in the not so distant future. But what exactly is&nbsp;university precarity? What are its main forms? Could it be more effectively combated than&nbsp;through the stalemate trench warfare of the prolonged strike?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an attempt to answer these questions this chapter starts from the proposition&nbsp;suggested by the international online discussion list and blog “Edu-factory”&nbsp;(http://www.edu-factory.org/edu15/) that the university has become an increasingly&nbsp;privatized and globalized "factory" for the production and dissemination of knowledge in the</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1 Paper for Session 3: “Precarious university work and conflict in higher education institutions” in the symposium&nbsp;“The Challenges Facing University Workers around Precarious Work in Higher Education Institutions” and the&nbsp;II International Meeting on Precarious Work, Mexico City, August 11-13, 2008. I thank my colleague Celia&nbsp;Pacheco Reyes who shared with me her views on the 2008 SITUAM strike. An article in Spanish was published in&nbsp;2008 based on the paper (see bibliography).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2 Il Manifesto Bio-Pop del Precariato Metroradicale was written collectively and posted to several discussion lists. This&nbsp;quotation is from the Globalproject broadsheet Il Fascino Indiscreto del Precariato, May 2004, 1.6. (cited in Tarí &amp;&nbsp;Vanni, 2005: 1; n1).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">3 Sindicato Independiente de los Trabajadores de la Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana/Independent Trade&nbsp;Union of UAM Workers.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">178</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">most intensive and competitive form possible, increasingly linked to the demands of private&nbsp;enterprise and the “free market”, rather than those of society. As for research, the state&nbsp;university is ever more in competition with research foundations and the private&nbsp;sector. These developments occur within and are crucial to the ongoing transition from&nbsp;industrial to cognitive capitalism, which Vercellone (2009: 119) defines as “a system of&nbsp;accumulation in which the productive value of professional and scientific work becomes dominant, and the</div><div style="text-align: justify;">central stakes in the valorization of capital relate directly to the control and transformation of knowledge into</div><div style="text-align: justify;">fictitious goods.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the higher education sector is key to the creation of surplus value in cognitive&nbsp;capitalism in which production and strategic dissemination of knowledge is central, a series&nbsp;of struggles are now being fought against both the privatization and transnationalization of&nbsp;the sector as well as the precarization, flexibilisation and casualization of its&nbsp;workforce. However, given the highly flexibilised, segmented and hierarchical nature of this&nbsp;workforce, these conflicts require the invention of new forms of struggle that will be more&nbsp;effective both in creating and maintaining the unity necessary to win by imposing a more&nbsp;effective pressure on the administration of public universities than the prolonged strike of&nbsp;the historical trade union movement. Above all, the organization of the production and&nbsp;distribution of knowledge as “common wealth” instead of fetishized market commodity is&nbsp;the key to thwarting both the neoliberalization of the public university and finally of&nbsp;neoliberalism-as-cognitive-capitalism itself (Hardt &amp; Negri, 2009). For, as Roggero (2012) so&nbsp;succinctly demonstrates, the transformation of labor under cognitive capitalism and the&nbsp;production, distribution and consumption of knowledge are intimately entwined in a system&nbsp;where labor is not only in the process of being made ever more precarious, but is also&nbsp;obliged to continually retrain and refine its intellectual capacities if it is to remain as “living&nbsp;labor”. But as labor always seeks its autonomy from the subordinating power of capital, so&nbsp;the struggle for the control of knowledge will be at the centre of its political practice:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“(…) recent university movements demonstrate (…) the new dynamic and changing relation between&nbsp;technical and political composition. That is they demonstrate the possibility of shattering and overturning the&nbsp;political economy of merit into collective control and evaluation of the production of knowledge; the populist</div><div style="text-align: justify;">battle against the corrupt into a generalized struggle against the debt, over the salary and income, for the reappropriation&nbsp;of social wealth; and the backlash against the system of representation, as well as ‘antipolitical’&nbsp;behavior, into a radical politics of the common.” (Roggero, 2012: 12).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>2. Uninomade 2.0 and the Edu-factory discussion list</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before entering the analysis of these issues, I will briefly describe the objectives and&nbsp;topics for discussion on the Edu-factory international list for discussion of the university,&nbsp;which is defined as follows:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“What was once the factory is now the university? (...) But be careful: the university doesn’t function at all&nbsp;like a factory. (...) The category of knowledge factory used by Stanley Aronowitz seems to us at once allusively</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">179</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">correct and analytically insufficient. Allusively correct because it grasps the way in which the university is&nbsp;becoming immediately productive, its centrality to contemporary capitalism, including its particular&nbsp;organizational characteristics as well as control and discipline of living labor”(Vercellone 2009: 119-124).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The list has been generating some fruitful theorizing about how processes of change,&nbsp;crisis and conflict affect the public university and its ability to produce and disseminate the&nbsp;knowledge hierarchy. It can make important contributions, therefore, to the analysis of the&nbsp;2008 SITUAM strike and the “double crisis” (financial and institutional) of Mexican and&nbsp;global higher education. Another important initiative globally has been Uninomade 2.0, a&nbsp;network of faculty, students, intellectuals and political activists, initially from Italy and the&nbsp;USA, but now also from Latin America and elsewhere, who are both co-researching and&nbsp;participating in the “revolts of cognitive labour”, guided by what is increasingly known as&nbsp;“post-autonomism” or “Italian Theory” which is:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“ (…) showing its innovative and irreducible core precisely in the very definition of knowledge. Making&nbsp;theory means today facing the question of co-research, or the philosophy of the non-philosophical (that is the</div><div style="text-align: justify;">political). It means to question the Humboldtian disciplines and the Anglo-American Studies, to abolish the&nbsp;distinction between the object and the subject of political investigation, to criticize the ‘procedural knowledge’&nbsp;and the method of the peer review, to show the financialization of student life by debt and, eventually, it means&nbsp;to question that IKEA of education that is the Bologna Process. Co-research means today rethinking the&nbsp;junction between praxis and theory inside the university in the age of the financial crisis. It is not a case then&nbsp;that it is the only school of thought criticizing cognitive capitalism to emerge at the very moment of the crisis of&nbsp;the global edu-factory” (Pasquinelli, 2011: citation from a web site).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In short, the Edu-factory list emerged in 2006 as a reaction by a global network of&nbsp;scholars, researchers, students and political activists to the spread of the Anglo-American&nbsp;model of the “global corporate university” in both its versions: the public or state university,&nbsp;restructured, partially privatized and legally bound by the neoliberal state to become a&nbsp;knowledge business that privileges the interests of private enterprise over the needs of&nbsp;society; and on the other hand, the rise of the transnational private university (such as the&nbsp;UVM<span style="font-size: x-small;">4</span> which in 2008 sacked some 30 part-time lecturers who were trying to establish an&nbsp;independent trade union that provides rapid and highly specialized degrees in order to&nbsp;form heavily indebted and thus indentured mid-level administrators and technicians rather&nbsp;than “liberal professionals”, and integrate them efficiently into an insecure, fragmented,&nbsp;hyper-competitive and exclusive job market. However, the list has tried to avoid the trap of&nbsp;being nostalgically defensive about the Keynesian-Fordist public university as a promoter of&nbsp;national culture and mass education:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">4 Universidad de la Valle de México; one of the largest private higher education networks in Mexico. As a result&nbsp;its main marketing ploy, judging by its ubiquitous roadside hoardings, is to offer its potential students a wider&nbsp;range of mobility than most other public or certainly private universities. The UVM does not allow trade unions,&nbsp;not even corporative ones linked to the authoritarian PRI (Partido de la Revolucion Institucionalizada), to&nbsp;organize on its premises.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">180</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“[T]he commercialization and implementation of a 'global university' [...] are the results of unilateral&nbsp;imposition. These are processes based on social relations. That is, the balance of power. It is not useful to&nbsp;oppose this process on behalf of the past, because we have contributed to the breakdown of the past. On the&nbsp;contrary, we must transform these processes into a field of conflict. We must address these processes at an&nbsp;advanced stage: this is the problem.” (De Nicola &amp; Roggero, 2008: citation from a web site)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rather it has sought to identify new possibilities for resistance, autonomy and mass&nbsp;intellectuality in the middle of a crisis scenario in public higher education caused by&nbsp;continuing (and now deepening) budget cuts by the neoliberal state over the last 30&nbsp;years. On the other hand, the structural insecurity of students (student-workers converted&nbsp;into two full-time jobs), precarious faculty forced to have multiple jobs to survive (known as&nbsp;"freeway fliers" in the U.S.) and graduates facing decades of debt repayment, particularly in&nbsp;the USA, where student loan-based debt is now worth a trillion dollars and is greater than&nbsp;credit card debt (Brooks, 2012). However, what appears at first sight as an entirely negative,&nbsp;free-market culture and its attempt to confine knowledge to exclusive patents, and copyright,&nbsp;limiting access to knowledge through Internet 2.0 to exclusive inputs, also clashes sharply&nbsp;with the university culture as time and space independent of the ordinary production,&nbsp;dissemination and utilization of knowledge through social cooperation. Undoubtedly, the</div><div style="text-align: justify;">university has historically been the privileged site for the formation of professional,&nbsp;bureaucratic and managerial elites, but the current clash between two profoundly conflicting&nbsp;institutional cultures and the ambiguities that leave cracks where surprising initiatives can&nbsp;flourish, such as the recent boom of the Mexican online university free radio station and&nbsp;other critical, creative, self-managed spaces of self-education, sometimes openly antagonistic&nbsp;to repressive state power. Among these were the University of Oaxaca, which became one of&nbsp;the main organizational nodes of the APPO<span style="font-size: x-small;">5</span> movement in 2006; the “Che” occupied</div><div style="text-align: justify;">auditorium in UNAM<span style="font-size: x-small;">6</span>, the still active legacy of the 1999 – 2000 students’ strike and&nbsp;occupation against fee hikes and attempted privatization; and the 2008 SITUAM strike, in&nbsp;sharp contraflow with the ongoing demobilization of organized labor in Mexico and globally</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">5 The Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca/Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca was one of the&nbsp;most important radical social movements in Latin America of the last decade. Founded in June 2006, following&nbsp;the attempted repression of a teachers’ strike and occupation of the main square of Oaxaca City, for five months&nbsp;it temporarily united all the main opposition groups in one of Mexico´s poorest and most multiethnic states&nbsp;against the authoritarian regime of PRI governor Ulisses Ruiz, occupying all the main state government buildings,&nbsp;organizing massive protest marches and barricades while taking over the running of the state and expelling Ruiz&nbsp;and the PRI from power. The state’s response was to use snipers to shoot dead at least 30 APPO participants and&nbsp;launch nightly paramilitary attacks against the barricades set up around the city. Finally, then President Fox&nbsp;deployed the army to regain control of the state for Ruiz, resulting in several more deaths and the beginning of&nbsp;the present phase of militarization under the guise of a supposed “war against drugs”, which has caused over&nbsp;60,000 deaths since the end of 2006. One of the final conflicts between APPO and state forces took place in and&nbsp;around the University of Oaxaca, from where the movement’s radio station broadcasted, in November 2006.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">6 Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, the oldest and largest university in Latin America; the base of the&nbsp;1958, 1968, 1987 and 1999 student movements and a wave of strikes by faculty and administrative workers&nbsp;between 1972 and 1988.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">181</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">with the rapid increase in anti-worker initiatives, such as the those of the European Union in&nbsp;June 2008 to increase the working week from 40 to up to 65 hours and criminalize&nbsp;undocumented immigration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h4>2.1 The three figures of precariousness</h4></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before viewing the various forms of university precarity, I will try to reach a general&nbsp;definition of precarity, from the theoretical perspective of post-operaismo. Basically, we cansay that there are three forms of insecure, precarious labor, each represented by one of three&nbsp;main figures, which are paradigmatic and not intended to exclude other forms of precarity&nbsp;from being considered: first, that of the precarious manual worker, who has seen the&nbsp;elimination of most basic labor rights and is personified by the figure of the young female&nbsp;worker in the maquiladora industry in Mexico; second, the insecurity of the intellectual&nbsp;cognitariat, as described by Berardi (2008), the new working class of cognitive capitalism that&nbsp;works primarily with its brain, which Lazzarato and Negri call “immaterial labor”,&nbsp;especially work based on information and communication technologies (Lazzarato, Negri,1991); the third figure, the undocumented immigrant, is at the bottom of the pyramid of&nbsp;precarity, and is the most precarious of all, practically clandestine on arrival in the U.S., EU&nbsp;or Japan, a kind of neo-slave, stigmatized, criminalized and rendered invisible (Ruggiero,&nbsp;2001). However, this tripartite definition can be problematic because more often than not&nbsp;maybe all three figures or any one of them or any combination of manual, intellectual and&nbsp;immigrant (a category that includes internal migration within a country) can be present in the&nbsp;same precarious worker. Finally, this definition ignores the most precarious figure of all,&nbsp;working-class women who could be together with the three previous figures, a housewife&nbsp;and/or sex worker, who specializes in care work, the most profitable type of work for neocapitalism&nbsp;according to Lazzarato and Negri’s theory of affective immaterial labour, but who&nbsp;is the most poorly paid of all, as unpaid domestic workers, or working under the most&nbsp;dangerous and stigmatized conditions as sex workers. Therefore we need a more&nbsp;sophisticated definition of a phenomenon which in itself is much more complex than might&nbsp;appear at first sight, according to “Precarias a la Deriva”, a co-research group of precarious&nbsp;women workers and political activists in Madrid:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In general, in the field of types of precarity, it is more useful to think of these different positions from the&nbsp;point of view of expressions of conflict and rebellion. Thus, we can see that in jobs with repetitive content&nbsp;(phone sales, cleaning work, textile maquiladoras), the level of subjective involvement with the work done is&nbsp;non-existent and this leads to pure forms of refusal-based conflict: generalized absenteeism, desertion, sabotage&nbsp;(...) On the other hand, in jobs where the content is of a professional type (nursing, informatics, social work,&nbsp;research) and, as such, the subjective implication with the task performed is high, the conflict is expressed as&nbsp;criticism: the logic of work organization, its articulation, the purposes for which it has been structured&nbsp;(...) Finally, in those jobs where the content is directly invisible and /or stigmatized (the most paradigmatic&nbsp;examples are the jobs of cleaning, home care and sex work, especially – but not only – street prostitution),&nbsp;conflict is manifested as a demand for dignity and recognition of the social value of what is done. (...) However,&nbsp;again these types share a common problem: the location of the unique perspective in the labour field becomes</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">182</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">our myopic view in the micro and macro conflicts that occur in and against the precariousness of existence in&nbsp;the area between work and non-work, causing short-circuits in the intricate system of connections of the&nbsp;network society. (Precarias a la Deriva, 2008; citation from a web site)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>3. Forms of precarity in the university</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Returning to the main issue of job precariousness in the university, this has been&nbsp;identified as one of the central aspects of the evolution, or rather involution, in the U.S. since&nbsp;1980 of the contemporary neoliberal global university. Or of the Anglo-American, post-Fordist or post-welfare state model, as Williams (2006: 195-196) calls it, in reference to the&nbsp;commercialization of what was once the “welfare state university”:&nbsp;(…) the university was part of the strategic defunding of the welfare state from the Reagan Era onwards,&nbsp;and universities have come to operate more as self-sustaining private entities than as subsidized public ones.&nbsp;This has taken a number of paths (…) Three in particular stand out as departures from the welfare state&nbsp;model. First, the production of directly marketable goods (even if called “knowledges”), (…), which permits&nbsp;universities to hold patents and thus profit from them. (…) Second, the exponential increase of tuition,&nbsp;construing higher education more like any other service that requires consumers or clients to “pay as you go.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(…) And third, the casualization of labor, largely through the use of temporary faculty, who now staff, by&nbsp;some estimates, 60% of courses.<span style="font-size: x-small;">7</span> (Before, a large majority of faculty, estimated at between 80–90%, held&nbsp;permanent positions.) Without the fiscal cushion of the state, the university has more fully adopted and&nbsp;internalized the protocols of the free market, selling goods, serving consumers, and downsizing labor. Like&nbsp;most other social institutions over the past two decades, the university has seen the erasure of the legacy of the&nbsp;New Deal and its vestiges—notably, socialized tuition and the goal of full employment.(…) For faculty, the&nbsp;so-called Reagan Revolution overwrote the Academic Revolution. (…) Rather than outsourcing labor to&nbsp;offshore sweatshops, the sweatshop has come to us, and the university has internalized its conditions of labor,&nbsp;pay, and “flexibility.” For those fortunate enough to hold permanent positions, the university has internalized&nbsp;the market protocol of intensified productivity, in the humanities through the largely symbolic productivity of&nbsp;books and articles (…), as well as the ensuing pressure for service, given that there are fewer fully franchised&nbsp;faculty members to keep departments running (…).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the central aspects of the ever increasing precariousness of academic work –&nbsp;including manual workers, administrative staff, faculty and students, who perform the&nbsp;important reproductive work of professional/technical self-formation without pay – is the&nbsp;role of casualization in the intensified verticalization of the university, leading to deepening&nbsp;divisions between tenured and temporary faculty, but also among graduates, as Vercellone&nbsp;(2009: 121-122) discusses here in the context of the struggles in France in 2006 by the&nbsp;movement of graduates, students and youth against the proposed First Employment&nbsp;Contract law (Contrat première embauche /CPE) which would have forced them to accept&nbsp;substantial wage cuts and significant reductions in working conditions for their first job:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">7 See Benjamin (1991).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">183</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In this configuration, a first sector concentrates an aristocracy of specialized intellectual work in the most&nbsp;profitable activities, which are also often parasitic on the knowledge economy. These include financial services&nbsp;for companies, research activities directed towards obtaining patents, legal counsels specialized in the defense of&nbsp;intellectual property rights, etc. This sector of the cognitariat (which one could also characterize as functionaries&nbsp;of capitalist rent) is well remunerated and has its competencies fully recognized. Its remuneration is integrated&nbsp;more and more into participation in the dividends of financial capital and the employees concerned benefit from&nbsp;forms of protection offered by the system of pension funds and private health insurance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the second sector, it comprises a labor force whose qualifications are not recognized. The workers of</div><div style="text-align: justify;">this category thus end up undergoing a phenomenon of déclassement — i.e., a devalorization of their&nbsp;conditions of remuneration and employment compared to the competencies they actually put to work in their&nbsp;professional activities. This sector must not only provide the neo-Taylorist functions for the traditional sectors</div><div style="text-align: justify;">and the new standardized services, but also (and above all) occupy the most precarious jobs in the new&nbsp;cognitive division of labor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>4. Precarious resistance: problems and proposals</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As previously mentioned, the list members have resisted the idea of returning to a&nbsp;mystified Keynesian past – in the final analysis heavily contested and rejected in the Sixties&nbsp;and Seventies by the “new social movements” and the groups of the New Left – as a&nbsp;solution to the privatization and transnationalization of higher education and university job&nbsp;insecurity. So what are the possible solutions and alternative strategies of struggle, not only&nbsp;to resist but above all as counterproposal, offered by the Edu-factory list? They are not put</div><div style="text-align: justify;">forward as prescriptions but rather as examples of new forms of struggle in the context of&nbsp;the precariousness of knowledge production in universities in different parts of the world,&nbsp;which could inform the discussion about the need to intensify the struggles against&nbsp;all precarious forms of work, here in Mexico.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The main alternative proposed by the list was the creation, in an alterglobalist sense, of an&nbsp;“Autonomous Global University” (AGU), based on the autonomous practice of a selfeducation&nbsp;community and initially organized as a global network of faculty, education&nbsp;workers, students and activists against the imposition of the neoliberal model of the&nbsp;globalized university. A similar initiative in Mexico could be the Earth Universities<span style="font-size: x-small;">8</span> in&nbsp;Oaxaca and Chiapas, which through alternative pedagogies and close links to local&nbsp;autonomous indigenous movements, particularly the Zapatista “Councils of Good&nbsp;Government” and Caracoles (larger scale Zapatista self-government units in Chiapas), have&nbsp;advanced the teaching and research of “other knowledges” produced by and adapted to the&nbsp;use of the Zapatista communities themselves:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[T] he AGU seeks to spread the virus of non-cooperation [with the global processes of neoliberal</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">8 Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca: http://unitierra.blogspot.mx/; Universidad de la Tierra en Chiapas:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/rsb_int_eng.html.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">184</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">privatization, transnationalization and precarity] to all universities. [...] The various auto-education&nbsp;initiatives and movements at the borders of the university and within it can be read as acts of non-cooperation&nbsp;with the institutionalization of a new order of knowledge. This new order exploits students, teachers and their&nbsp;knowledge for profit and control. These acts resist the enfeeblement and enslavement of knowledge producers of&nbsp;knowledge and seek to liberate knowledge from the clutches of [university] dons, managers and rent seekers.(Vidya Ashram, 2009: 168)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, an Australian academic has already criticized the limitations of this initiative by&nbsp;means of this contribution to the list:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is not, therefore, required for anyone to declare the emergence of what might be called an autonomous&nbsp;university or a global university, let alone grant it recognition from the standpoint of the university, though&nbsp;claims of propriety abound. In a sense, it is already being shaped, and there is by no means one. The internets,&nbsp;too, are riven by conflicts over how value might be recognized, compared and measured. They are complicated&nbsp;by questions of access, of right and authorship, of the relation between hierarchy and equality, of intelligibility&nbsp;and translation, enclosure and confrontations with it. […] They have not provided a resolution to any of these&nbsp;questions, but they are the forms of escape and subtraction as these exist in the present moment. And they are&nbsp;forms of escape that have amplified the tensions that reside under the heading of precariousness, of the&nbsp;indistinction between life and labour and, hence, of public and private and the consequences of this, for better&nbsp;and worse. (Mitropoulos, 2008; citation from a web site)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Precarious academic workers have been self-organizing autonomously in Rome, Italy,&nbsp;where there has been a strong tradition of trade union, worker and student self-organization,&nbsp;both at the university and in the city since the Sixties:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Network for Self-Education is a political laboratory of students and precarious researchers from&nbsp;many faculties, both scientific and humanistic. In fact, the Network is a device that cuts and criss-crosses the&nbsp;borders between university disciplines, the division between teaching and research, and the borderline between&nbsp;education and metropolitan production. This kind of self-education is a new form of political organization, a&nbsp;collective gear in which theory lives in praxis. It approaches the struggles surrounding knowledge production&nbsp;(and the quality and control of knowledge flows) as a strategic field of conflict for the cognitive workforce.&nbsp;(Rete per l’Autoformazione of Rome, 2007: citation from a web site).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, and in reference to the growing crisis of the public university within the overall&nbsp;crisis of state education, and of the very concept and practice of education in the face of the&nbsp;epistemological instability and impressive pace of scientific and technological innovations of&nbsp;our time, Vercellone (2009: 124) raises that:&nbsp;What is certain is that the resolution to this crisis will not come about through a return to the Fordist&nbsp;model of labor regulation as has been proposed in a variety of ways by the majority of the French left (from&nbsp;socialists to Trotskyists.) The principal problem that the struggle of students and precarious workers poses (in&nbsp;France and across Europe) is the need for the elaboration of new labor rights and a system of social protection&nbsp;capable of reconciling revenue security with labor mobility. This must be done in a way that favors desired<br /> <span style="text-align: center;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 185</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">mobility rather than that imposed by employers. The welfare systems of the Nordic countries, but also those of&nbsp;countries in the EU, already have in place some of the prerequisites from which this alternative model of&nbsp;regulation might be constructed, on condition that there is a return to the dynamic of de-marketification of the</div><div style="text-align: justify;">economy by means of reinforcing the effective liberty of individuals through the labor market.&nbsp;Another demand in the short or medium term could be “flexicurity”, i.e. the combination&nbsp;of the flexibility and mobility so desired by many sectors of the academic workforce with&nbsp;general contractual security through “fractionalization”, meaning that instead of working as&nbsp;an hourly paid part-timer one could work with all the rights and benefits of 0.5 or 0.8 etc. of&nbsp;a full-time contract (depending on the number of hours worked per week, of course&nbsp;including the time for preparation in the case of lecturers). The fractionalization of all&nbsp;temporary and casual lecturers in further and higher education is one of the main demands&nbsp;of UCU<span style="font-size: x-small;">9</span>, the sector’s national trade union in Britain.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h4>4.1 SITUAM Strike, February-April 2008</h4></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While this analysis of the SITUAM 2008 strike may appear out of kilter with the&nbsp;theoretical discussions I have selected from the Edu-factory list, I am returning to the&nbsp;questions posed at the beginning of this chapter about the strike, because I believe that some&nbsp;important lessons can be drawn for precarious workers around the world who seek to&nbsp;redress their grievances through the trade union, even a trade union as anomalous as</div><div style="text-align: justify;">SITUAM. The intransigence of the Dean of the UAM led him to refuse to negotiate with the&nbsp;SITUAM, so causing an institutional crisis of exasperation within the moderate union&nbsp;leadership, desperate to negotiate an end to the strike as quickly as possible. The latter had&nbsp;been opposed to the strike right from its start, on 1st February 2008. What pushed the rank&nbsp;and file of the union to insist on strike action, despite the reluctance and open sympathy with&nbsp;the Dean’s discourse of the leadership of SITUAM, was the unilateral breaking of the&nbsp;collective bargaining agreement, renegotiated every two years by SITUAM and the Dean, at&nbsp;the new unit in Cuajimalpa in 2004, where management tried to impose a “new culture of&nbsp;work”, typically neoliberal and in sharp contrast to the rest of the culturally leftist UAM. In&nbsp;Cuajimalpa, unlike the rest of the university, SITUAM is relatively weak and the majority of&nbsp;manual workers, administrators and faculty are still on precarious contracts. Outsourcing has&nbsp;been used in an attempt to eliminate large sections of manual workers such as cleaners and&nbsp;cafeteria staff. This breach of the university-wide bilateral collective contract by the Dean in&nbsp;Cuajimalpa forced the base of the union, against the leadership’s reluctance to act, to resist&nbsp;its extension to the rest of the university. The yawning gap in wages and working conditions,&nbsp;especially between administrative staff (the backbone of the strike and of SITUAM) and&nbsp;University and College Union (UCU), result of the amalgamation in 2005 of the National Association of&nbsp;Teachers in Higher &amp; Further Education (NATFHE) with the Association of University Teachers (AUT).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">186</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">faculty<span style="font-size: x-small;">10</span>, but also between “trusted workers”<span style="font-size: x-small;">11</span> and manual and administrative workers in the&nbsp;process of becoming precarious, also radicalized the rank-and-file who demanded a general&nbsp;salary increase of 30% for all workers at the UAM. However, the virtually “wildcat” nature&nbsp;of the strike and its historic prolongation led to growing divisions among faculty, particularly&nbsp;with the anti-strike interventions of the “Academic Network” (RDA)<span style="font-size: x-small;">12</span>. This anti-union&nbsp;organization is composed mostly of faculty with the most secure contracts and privileged&nbsp;positions, who support the Dean and the government whom they probably pressured to&nbsp;concede as little as possible, even if it meant prolonging the strike, given the growing&nbsp;importance of higher education in the Mexican and global economies. Some prominent&nbsp;members of the RDA were previously SITUAM activists and leaders who have come out in&nbsp;opposition to the internal currents that dominated the union at that time. Opposed to the&nbsp;RDA were the many faculty still enrolled in SITUAM who actively participated in the</div><div style="text-align: justify;">marches, rallies, sit-ins and occupations of the four units and the General Rectory during the&nbsp;strike. Above all, they were concerned to prevent the fragmentation of the union being&nbsp;promoted by the RDA and its antecedents from the 1994 strike who were proposing the&nbsp;formation of a union exclusively for full-time tenured faculty. Some part-time faculty on&nbsp;fixed-term contracts, like other precarious and therefore vulnerable workers – mostly in the&nbsp;UAM-Cuajimalpa – were pressured (via email) by members of the RDA to actively&nbsp;oppose the strike by signing on-line petitions against the strike or through attendance at a&nbsp;symbolic event against the strike organized by the RDA, in front of the Palace of Fine Arts&nbsp;in the historic center of Mexico City towards the end of the strike. It seems that most&nbsp;precarious faculty decided not to support these initiatives, given their meager results,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">10 Until the University Law of 1982, the salaries of faculty and administrative staff at the UAM were comparable.&nbsp;This law introduced the current system of bonuses and salary top-up grants for faculty, allowing them to&nbsp;supplement their generally low basic salaries according to their “academic productivity”, i.e. performance related&nbsp;pay or the introduction of taylorist piece-work in the academy. The result today is that the maximum salary of an administrative worker is 7,000 pesos a month (about $650), while faculty can earn up to ten times more.&nbsp;However, since the largest part of faculty income is made up of productivity-related and annually assessed&nbsp;conditional payments, this system has imposed increased and intensified work-loads, forcing faculty to continue&nbsp;working after retirement age in order not to lose most of their income, so denying new work opportunities for&nbsp;young academics starting their careers while leading to an increase in deaths- in-service both before and after&nbsp;retirement age.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">11 Trabajadores de confianza. Administrative and manual workers who in return for significantly higher salaries,&nbsp;better conditions and greater job security (all off-the-books) sign no-strike agreements and function as strikebreakers&nbsp;and as “porros” (shock troops) to intimidate student and union activists. Porros, who are more usually&nbsp;hired thugs posing as students, are a major problem at the much larger UNAM and IPN universities and&nbsp;throughout the Mexican secondary and higher education systems (Pérez, 2003), but their activity has been&nbsp;reduced to a minimum at the UAM-Xochimilco campus thanks to the rapid intervention and strong line taken by&nbsp;SITUAM militants.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">12 Red de Académicos. This rightist network in 2009 formed the backbone of the new “yellow” lecturers union,&nbsp;SPAUAM (Sindicato del Personal Academica de la UAM/Union of Academic Staff of the UAM), whose&nbsp;principal aim is to replace SITUAM as the official representative of faculty in negotiations with the Dean and&nbsp;break the formal unity between faculty, administrative and manual workers represented by SITUAM. So far it has&nbsp;failed to obtain majority support among the UAM’s 3,000 faculty and is suspected by SITUAM of being funded&nbsp;and promoted by the Dean. In certain units of the UAM, particularly Cuajimalpa, new precarious lecturers are&nbsp;pressured by management to join SPAUAM if they want their contracts to be renewed.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">187</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">although their active participation in the strike was blocked by fear of termination or rather&nbsp;the non-renewal of their contracts which expire every three to six months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">SITUAM failed to win concessions for most of their demands, particularly the 30% salary&nbsp;increase for administrative and manual workers, which would have completely broken the&nbsp;salary cap imposed by various governments, under continuous pressure from the World&nbsp;Bank and International Monetary Fund since the 1982 debt crisis. However, its most&nbsp;important achievement was connected to the main cause of the strike: to put a halt to the&nbsp;expansion of the new neoliberal work paradigm, as experienced in the Cuajimalpa unit, to&nbsp;the rest of the university. In fact, SITUAM won a major victory in forcing the Dean of the&nbsp;UAM-Cuajimalpa to withdraw their outsourcing contracts and to respect the bilateral&nbsp;collectively bargained contract with SITUAM. At the same time, the union was consolidated&nbsp;in this unit through the strike.&nbsp;It also managed to maintain its unity – perhaps unique in the world – to gather together&nbsp;manual workers, administrators and faculty in the same independent union, in the face of&nbsp;strong divisive pressures, both external and internal. Indeed, increasingly strong internal&nbsp;divisions during the strike were caused, mainly, by the errors, uncertainties and naiveté of the&nbsp;newly elected leadership of the union in its negotiations with the General Rectory, thus leading&nbsp;to active opposition from various sectors and opposing tendencies led by former Secretary&nbsp;Generals of the union that tried to take advantage of the unrest to advance their personal&nbsp;interests and recapture control of the union. Thus there were several incidents, including&nbsp;hunger strikes, sit-ins and acts of violence against SITUAM headquarters, which created an&nbsp;impression for public opinion of lack of control by the union leadership and pushed the&nbsp;union’s base towards the rushed conclusion of the strike after two months, though it was still&nbsp;the longest in the history of the UAM. SITUAM however managed to maintain its unity in the&nbsp;face of these pressures, which have not stopped with the end of the strike, especially from the&nbsp;RDA/SPAUAM. Since then there has been a long process of analysis and self-criticism, not&nbsp;without serious dangers of fragmentation, to explain the relative failure of the strike. It was not&nbsp;absolute because the Dean had already granted several of the union’s demands even before the&nbsp;strike started, such as the reopening of an important crèche.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the strike, whose prolongation and militancy were symptomatic of the growing crisis&nbsp;in the entire field of education in Mexico and against its gradual privatization, precarization&nbsp;and transnationalization, provided some important lessons. Perhaps the most important was&nbsp;the realization that the traditional prolonged strike is very difficult to mobilize, even harder&nbsp;to maintain and tends to increase the union's vulnerability to internal divisions and external&nbsp;pressures and interventions. SITUAM therefore, along with other independent unions, has&nbsp;had the task of finding new forms of struggle that can help social actors directly affected by&nbsp;the commercialization of the public university to actively campaign together, especially the&nbsp;students themselves and the growing number of precarious faculty and other workers,&nbsp;traditionally excluded from the organization of and participation in prolonged&nbsp;strikes. Nevertheless, it has to be said that 18 months later in November 2009 SITUAM was</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">188</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">one of the few independent unions not to support a one-day strike in solidarity with the&nbsp;40,000 locked out SME electrical workers<span style="font-size: x-small;">13</span>, so leaving in the lurch the students movements&nbsp;in the Xochimilco and Iztapalapa units who had already decided to shut down these&nbsp;campuses and who then had to deal with tense situations with porros and “trusted workers”&nbsp;sent to prevent the closures. On the other hand the union has made serious inroads into&nbsp;organizing part-time precarious faculty for the first time, not abandoning them to the&nbsp;clutches of SPAUAM. This change is not only strategic and tactical, it can be seen as part of&nbsp;a necessary paradigm shift in the whole labor movement globally, according to Negri: “Today&nbsp;I think that this new cycle of precarious labor, immaterial and cognitive, is becoming fundamental, not only&nbsp;here [in Europe] but everywhere, within the unification of the global market [...] It is the new form of labor,&nbsp;the new terrain of rebellion in the workforce.” (Negri &amp; Scelsi, 2008: 62)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also most students, part-time faculty and workers, passively supported the strike through&nbsp;non-participation in the initiatives of the General Rectory and the RDA against the strike,&nbsp;although they were heavily promoted by the mass media. But support for the strike by&nbsp;students was not just passive. Several groups of activists across the university, but especially&nbsp;in UAM-Iztapalapa, had already started a (typically cognitariat) struggle before the strike for&nbsp;the improvement of library services and for the expansion of the system of grants to&nbsp;improve access to higher education. Moreover, after the end of the strike in April 2008 there&nbsp;was a wave of important struggles against the privatization of higher education, such as&nbsp;multiple short-lived strikes in state universities and the National Pedagogical&nbsp;University. Above all, we have seen for the first time an important movement of the&nbsp;hundreds of thousands of students annually rejected by the privately administered system of</div><div style="text-align: justify;">registration fees and entrance exams used by the UNAM and UAM to hinder most of them&nbsp;from gaining access to free or cheap public higher education.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">13 In October 2009 President Calderon ordered the Federal Police to occupy the main administrative offices of&nbsp;the Luz y Fuerza parastatal electricity company responsible for providing energy to Mexico City and central&nbsp;Mexico where the vast majority of the population lives, causing the locking out of some 40,000 electrical workers&nbsp;and members of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME/Mexican Union of Electrical Workers), the most&nbsp;powerful independent trade union. LyF was dissolved as a company and its operations handed to the national&nbsp;Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), a parastatal company which will almost certainly be privatized in the near&nbsp;future, especially as they now control Mexico’s largest network of triple-play fiber optics, worth billions of dollars&nbsp;to communications and broadcasting companies. The SME workers were offered redundancy but not their jobs&nbsp;back. There was a wave of popular repudiation of Calderon’s militarist coup against one of the most important&nbsp;trade unions, leading to a series of mass marches, strikes and days of action in solidarity with the SME workers&nbsp;and against Calderon’s unconstitutional actions in the autumn of 2009. University and high school students were&nbsp;among the most active in expressing their support for the SME workers. Now in 2012, only 16,000 SME workers</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">still hold out for negotiating their return to work for the CFE and the rest have accepted redundancy. However, a&nbsp;massive consumer revolt against the CFE and its attempt to unilaterally raise electricity bills continues and many&nbsp;Mexico City households have not paid electricity bills since October 2009. When people are disconnected from&nbsp;the grid for not paying, SME workers reconnect them immediately.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">14 The main students movement of los rechazados (the rejected) since 2006 is the MAES (Movimiento de&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Aspirantes Excluidos de la Educacion Superior/Movement of Aspirants Excluded from Higher Education:&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://aspirantesexcluidos.blogspot.mx/) who annually organize hundreds of thousands of rejected students into</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">189</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and intensity of struggles, movements and social conflicts by the cognitariat over free or low&nbsp;cost access to knowledge and the conditions for its production and distribution are&nbsp;increasing in Mexico, as in the rest of the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In conclusion, Internet discussion lists and co-research-activist networks such as Edufactory,&nbsp;Uninomade and the Knowledge Liberation Front (founded in Paris in 2011) enable&nbsp;activists, faculty, researchers, students and casual workers from around the world to be in&nbsp;permanent contact and to rethink the production and dissemination of knowledge and the&nbsp;role of the public university, to better formulate valid alternatives to the initiatives of&nbsp;privatization, enclosure, transnationalization and precarization that neoliberal cognitive&nbsp;capitalism wants to impose. On the other hand, the more progressive and autonomous&nbsp;traditional worker organizations such as SITUAM are in the more than contradictory process&nbsp;of adapting to opposing the neoliberalization of higher education in Mexico, while&nbsp;organizing a new social subject who may well feel ill at ease in such vertical structures; the&nbsp;cognitive, immaterial, precarious knowledge worker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3>Bibliography</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anon. Huelga febrero – abril 2008 del SITUAM: la lucha de clases al interior del SITUAM, la burocracia sindical</div><div style="text-align: justify;">y corrientes, «Huelga SITUAM 2008» [web site]:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">http://es.scribd.com/doc/45758922/Huelga-SITUAM-2008; consulted May 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Benjamin, E. (1991) Declining faculty availability to students is the problem—but tenure is not the explanation,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">«American Behavioral Scientist», Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 716–735.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Berardi, F. (2008) «The Factory of Unhappiness.» Interview:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">http://www.flexmens.org/drupal/?q=bifo_the_factory_of_unhappiness; consulted 5th August 2008.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brooks, D. (2012) Los universitarios de EU, los más endeudados del mundo, «La Jornada», Miércoles 11th</div><div style="text-align: justify;">January, p.4.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cuninghame, P. (2008) “Edu-factory”: precarización de la producción del conocimiento y alternativas, «Bajo el</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Volcán», Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico, Vol. 7, No. 13, pp. 11-24.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">De Nicola, A. &amp; Roggero G, (2008) Eight Theses on University, Hierarchization and Institutions of the</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Common, in «Edu-factory» (web site), 5th January: http://www.edu-factory.org/; consulted 5th</div><div style="text-align: justify;">August 2008.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hardt, M. (1996) «The Italian Laboratory»: http://usuarios.lycos.es/pete_baumann/index-81.html;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">consulted 5th August 2008.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hardt, M. &amp; Negri, A. (2009) Commonwealth, Cambridge MA, The Belknap Press of Harvard University</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Press.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Laboratorio de Trabajadoras: Precarias a la Deriva (2005) Una coinvestigación sobre la precariedad femenina,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">«Sin Dominio» (web site): http://www.sindominio.net/karakola/antigua_casa/precarias.htm;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">consulted 8th April 2008.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">a movement that can negotiate places for most of these students in universities other than UNAM, Mexico’s</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">largest, most prestigious and most exclusive public university.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">190</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dpckvXxhAM0/UKmmcOKf97I/AAAAAAAAATo/J7PM7apJCM4/s1600/thump_27815uam-huelga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dpckvXxhAM0/UKmmcOKf97I/AAAAAAAAATo/J7PM7apJCM4/s1600/thump_27815uam-huelga.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/11/resistance-to-precarity-in-knowledge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-590533710558564065Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:43:00 +00002012-11-12T06:50:22.310-08:00UACM Newsletter Mexico City, November 8, 2012<br /><br />http://www.yosoy132media.org/documentos/comunicados/boletin-informativo-de-la-uacm/<br />written by # YoSoy132Media<br />Posted on November 8, 2012 by # YoSoy132Media - 2 Comments ↓<br /><br /><b>URGENT NEWSLETTER</b><br />Information last moment alert:<br />A few minutes ago in the Historical Center Campus police arrived, without justification, and asked CEL [Consejo Estudiantil de Lucha/Student Struggle Council-translator] that protects students on the campus, information about its people.<br />Near the Cuautepec campus, the student member of the RED [Network, pro-Rector Orozco -translator] Luis Bravo, a student hit Pedro Cortes Fourteen of the CEL and seriously injured him. He was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, accompanied by teachers.<br />Riot Police still outside occupied offices and close Avenida Eugenia/Eje 5<br />Around 200 riot police surrounded the building of Eugenia today around 20:00, after a peaceful takeover by the Student Council of Struggle (CEL) of the administrative offices of the UACM. Network members, who were on the third floor of the building, smashed windows to accuse the students of violence. The CEL denies all allegations of violence against workers, facilities and that weapons have been used, as is falsely spreading the rectory. All workers left the building, so that it is protected by the CEL.<br />As at 20:30 there was a heavy presence of riot police and the lawyer said it was possible for the evacuation of students. The fight community requested the presence of the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District (CDHDF) to certify any possible use of force and it went to the place. Similarly, Professor 's Academic Forum members, counselors and college counselors Eugenia moved to vouch for the situation and protect the presence of students.<br />The movement fighting for legality rejects all acts of repression against students of CEL. We urge that the Federal District Government fulfill its commitment not to intervene with police.<br />The rector Esther Orozco was in the building and refused to leave, she finally agreed and was escorted out at 20:00. The rector has spread a lie that was she was held against her will, a situation which is absolutely false, for it was she who refused to leave and she never was assaulted in any way.<br /><br />So far, 22:00 pm, the riot police continues outside and the offices remain closed and taken over vehicular Eugenia 5 South Axis in the section in which it is the main entrance.<br />Translated by Patrick Cuninghame, Mexico City, November 12, 2012.<br />Commission Press<br />Boletín informativo de la UACM<br /><br />escrito por #YoSoy132Media<br />Publicado en 8 noviembre, 2012 por #YoSoy132Media<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> — 2 Comentarios ↓<br />Ciudad de México, 8 de noviembre de 2012<br /><br />BOLETÍN INFORMATIVO URGENTE<br /><br />Información alerta de último momento:<br /><br />Hace unos minutos policías llegaron Plantel Centro Histórico, sin justificación, pidieron a estudiantes del CEL que resguardan el plantel, información sobre sus personas.<br /><br />En los alrededores del plantel Cuautepec, el estudiante integrante de la RED Luis Bravo, golpeó a un estudiante Pedro Cortés Catorce del CEL y lo lesionó de gravedad. Fue llevado a un hospital en una ambulancia, acompañado de profesores.<br /><br />Granaderos continúan afuera de oficinas tomadas y cierran Eje 5 Eugenia<br /><br />Al rededor de 200 granaderos rodearon el edificio de Eugenia hoy alrededor de las 20:00, tras la toma pacífica del Consejo Estudiantil de Lucha (CEL) de las oficinas administrativas de la UACM. Integrantes de la RED, que estaban en el tercer piso del edificio, rompieron vidrios para acusar a los estudiantes de violencia. El CEL niega toda acusación de violencia contra trabajadores, las instalaciones y de haber usado armas, tal como lo está difundiendo falsamente la rectoría. Todos los trabajadores salieron del edificio, por lo que éste se encuentra resguardado por el CEL.<br /><br />Como a las 20:30 horas se registró una fuerte presencia de granaderos y policías y el abogado señaló que era posible el desalojo de los estudiantes. La comunidad en lucha solicitó la presencia de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal (CDHDF) para certificar cualquier posible uso de la fuerza y ésta se dirigió al lugar. Igualmente, profesor@s integrantes del Foro Académico, consejeras y consejeros universitarios se trasladaron a Eugenia para dar fe de la situación y resguardar con su presencia a los estudiantes.<br /><br />El movimiento en lucha por la legalidad rechaza todo acto represivo contra los estudiantes del CEL. Exigimos al Gobierno del Distrito Federal cumplir su compromiso de no intervenir con la fuerza pública.<br /><br />La rectora Esther Orozco se encontraba en el edificio y se negaba a salir, finalmente aceptó y salió escoltada a las 20:00 horas. La rectora ha difundido que fue retenida, situación absolutamente falsa, pues fue ella quien se negó a salir y en ningún momento fue agredida en ninguna forma.<br /><br />Hasta el momento, las 22:00 horas, los granaderos continúan en las afueras de las oficinas tomadas y mantienen cerrado el paso vehicular del Eje 5 Sur Eugenia en el tramo en que se encuentra la entrada principal del edificio.<br /><br />Comisión Prensa<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T5Mgr57NQu4/UKEKv08ZTEI/AAAAAAAAATY/YN6KelgKBW4/s1600/D1928130EC4E33B377AE61F764190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T5Mgr57NQu4/UKEKv08ZTEI/AAAAAAAAATY/YN6KelgKBW4/s320/D1928130EC4E33B377AE61F764190.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/11/uacm-newsletter-httpwww.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-3626034683136603888Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:49:00 +00002012-10-28T15:19:05.180-07:00<br /><div id="change_BottomBar"><span id="change_Powered"><a href="http://www.change.org/" target="_blank">Change.org</a></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7370834338342950357">|</a><span id="change_Start">Online <a href="http://www.change.org/start-a-petition">Petition Form</a></span></div><br /><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/hunger-strikers-in-turkish-prisons-engage-in-constructive-dialogue-with-prisoners">http://www.change.org/petitions/hunger-strikers-in-turkish-prisons-engage-in-constructive-dialogue-with-prisoners</a><br /><br /><br />We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the situation and condition of hunger strikers in Turkish prisons. We understand that over 700 Kurdish political prisoners have passed their 46th day on hunger strike, without their demands being addressed by the authorities. Medical experts confirm that in the course of a hunger strike the 40th day is a turning point where physical and mental dysfunctions commence, as well as cases of death begin to occur.<br /><br />According to international conventions signed by the Republic of Turkey, the government is in charge of a prisoner’s health. As top-ranking members of the government, the President, Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice will personally be held responsible for any damage to the prisoners’ physical condition.<br /><br />Furthermore, the prisoners’ demands consist primarily of the right to defense in mother tongue and freeing Abdullah Öcalan from solitary confinement. We would like to express our full support of these demands since they are based on fundamental human rights.<br /><br />We therefore urge the Turkish government to enter in constructive dialogue with the prisoners to respond to their demands.<br /><br />The international community’s opinion on Turkey and its reform process will be strongly shaped by the way the present hunger strikes are handled and the prisoners are treated. Turkey’s reputation might be seriously harmed should this incident turn into a human tragedy.<br /><br />Can Ağar, Translator, İstanbul, Turkey<br />Ahmet Hamdi Akkaya, Ghent University, Belgium<br />Emek Alici, University of London, UK<br />Ahmet Alış, Bogaziçi University, Turkey<br />Seda Altug, Bogazici University, Turkey<br />Shiler Amini, University of Exeter, UK<br />Mizgin Müjde Arslan, Bahçeşehir University, Turkey<br />Dr Mehmet Asutay, Durham University, UK<br />Ebru Avci, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey<br />Dr. Bilgin Ayata, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany<br />U. Rezan Azizoğlu, Ankara University, Turkey<br />Hanifi Barış, University of Aberdeen, UK<br />Luqman Barwari, president, Kurdish National Congress-North America (KNC-NA)<br />Oyman Basaran, The University of Massachusetts, USA<br />Dr. Bahar Başer, University of Warwick, UK<br />Dr. Derya Bayır, University of London , UK<br />Fırat Bozçalı, Stanford University, USA<br />Dr. Katharina Brizić, Linguist, Austria<br />Adnan Çelik, EHESS, Paris, France<br />Umit Cetin, University of Essex, UK<br />Cuma Cicek, Paris Institute of Political Studies, France<br />Ozgur Cicek, Binghamton University, NY, USA<br />Ayca Ciftci, University of London, UK<br />Deniz Cifci, Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey<br />Dr Barzoo Eliassi, Lund University, Sweden<br />Secil Dagtas, University of Toronto, Canada<br />Engin Emre Değer, Istanbul Şehir University, Turkey<br />Esin Düzel, UCSD, USA<br />Burcu Ege, Independent Researcher, Turkey<br />Delal Aydin Elhuseyni, Binghamton University, NY, USA<br />Muhammed Mesud Fırat, Bilgi University. Turkey<br />Bahar Şahin Fırat, Boğaziçi University, Turkey<br />Özlem Galip, University of Exeter, UK<br />Başak Gemici, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey<br />Frangis Ghaderi, University of Exeter, UK<br />Onur Gunay, Princeton University, USA<br />Azat Z. Gundogan, Binghamton University, NY, USA<br />Saed Kakei, Nova Southeastern University, USA<br />Fethi Karakecili, York University, Canada<br />Maryam Kashani, The University of Texas at Austin, USA<br />Dr Janroj Keles , London Metropolitan University, UK<br />Yeşim Mutlu, METU, Turkey<br />Dr. Nilay Ozok-Gundogan, Denison University, USA<br />Dr. Cengiz Güneş, The Open University, UK<br />Serra Hakyemez, Johns Hopkins University, USA<br />Wendy Hamelink, Leiden University, Netherlands<br />Murat Issı, University of Panteion, Greece<br />Mithat Ishakoglu, University of Exeter, UK<br />Saed Kakei, Nova Southeastern University, USA<br />Erkan Karaçay, University of Exeter, UK<br />Elif İnal, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey<br />Dr. Iclal Ayşe Küçükkırca, Mardin Artuklu University, Turkey<br />Dr. Kamran Matin, Sussex University, UK<br />Caroline McKusick, University of California Davis, USA<br />Dilan Okçuoğlu, Queens University, Canada<br />Ergin Opengin, Paris 3, Paris, France<br />Omer Ozcan, The University of Texas at Austin, USA<br />Dr. Hisyar Ozsoy, University of Michigan-Flint, USA<br />Prof. Dr. H.Neşe Özgen, Ege University, Turkey<br />Erlend Paashe, Peace Research Institute, Oslo, Norway<br />Berivan Sarikaya, York University, UK<br />Dr. Besime Şen, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey<br />Dr. Birgül Açıkyıldız-Şengül, Harvard University, USA<br />Ruken Sengul, The University of Texas at Austin, USA<br />Dr. Serdar Şengül, Harvard University, USA<br />Dr. Prakash Shah, University of London, UK<br />Christian Sinclair, University of Arizona, USA<br />Prof. Dr. Nükhet Sirman, Boğaziçi University, Turkey<br />Ülker Sözen, Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Turkey<br />Marcin Starzewski, Sabanci University, Turkey<br />Kelly Stuart, Columbia University, USA<br />Dr. Engin Sustam, EHESS, Paris, france<br />Dr. Raja Swamy, The University of Arkansas, USA<br />Mohammedali Yaseen Taha, University of Lisbon, Portugal<br />Dr. Latif Tas, Humbolt University, Berlin, Germany<br />Salima Tasdemir, University of Exeter, UK<br />Omer Tekdemir, Durham University, UK<br />Dr. Sebahattin Topçuoğlu, Hamburg, Germany<br />Dr. Nazan Üstündağ, Bogazici University, Turkey<br />Dr. Kamala Visweswaran, The University of Texas At Austin, USA<br />Muge Yamanyilmaz, Bilgi University, Turkey<br />Serkan Yaralı, EHESS, Paris, France<br />Güllistan Yarkın, Binghamton University, USA<br />Prof. Dr. Mesut Yeğen, Istanbul Şehir University, Turkey<br />İsmail Hakkı Yiğit, Fatih University, Turkey<br />Dilan Yildirim, Harvard University, USA<br />Emrah Yıldız, Harvard University, USA<br />Cagri Yoltar, Duke University, USA<br />Dr. Zafer Yörük, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey<br />Ayse Seda Yuksel, Central European University, Hungary<br />Dr Welat Zeydanlioglu, Kurdish Studies Network<br />Max Zirngast, University of Vienna, Austria<br /><br /><br />[Your name]<br /><div><br /></div><br /><br />http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/10/change.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-4113129268822685761Thu, 11 Oct 2012 01:25:00 +00002012-10-10T18:31:50.533-07:00PREGUNTAS SOBRE EL COOPERATIVISMO, CONTROL OBRERO Y AUTOGESTION (POWERPOINT)<a href="https://sn1-broadcast.15.officeapps.live.com/m/Broadcast.aspx?Fi=0dc729f6b0db16fb%5F11a13c27%2Da7ff%2D4946%2Db67e%2D8f69d6825065%2Epptx">https://sn1-broadcast.15.officeapps.live.com/m/Broadcast.aspx?Fi=0dc729f6b0db16fb%5F11a13c27%2Da7ff%2D4946%2Db67e%2D8f69d6825065%2Epptx</a>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/10/preguntas-sobre-el-cooperativismo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-3337441455997490650Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:40:00 +00002012-10-10T17:40:41.311-07:00<a href="http://www.spreaker.com/show/the_patrick_cuninghame_show">Preguntas sobre el cooperativismo, control obrero y autogestion en la coyuntura mexicana actual: hacia la democracia de la multitud</a>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-post_10.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-3976995983009379594Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:09:00 +00002012-10-08T13:16:56.448-07:00#YoSoy132autogestioncapitalismoclase obreracontrol obrerocooperativismocrisis economicademocraciaMexicomovimiento estudiantilmultitudneoliberalismooctubre de 2012paro nacionalPREGUNTAS SOBRE EL COOPERATIVISMO, EL CONSEJISMO Y EL CONTROL OBRERO A LA LUZ DE LA COYUNTURA MEXICANA ACTUAL: Hacia la construction de una democracia de la multitud<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">Seminario</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">Itinerante</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;"> del Dep. De </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">Relaciones</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">Sociales</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">: “Para el </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">desarrollo</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;"> del </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">cooperativismo</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;"> y la </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">economia</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;"> social y </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">solidaria</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">”. Mesa 1: Crisis y </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">desempleo</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">en Mexico.<br />UAM-</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">Xochimilco</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">, 8 de </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">octubre</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 14pt;">de 2012.&nbsp;</span></div><br /><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 44.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Coyuntura</span><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 44.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Mexicana </span><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 44.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">octubre</span><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 44.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">2012</span><br /><br /><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">1.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Movilizaciones</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">sociales</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">: #YoSoy132, </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Morena</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Convencion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Nacional</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">contra la </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Imposicion</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">2.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Fraude</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">electoral del 1 de Julio</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">3.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Decision anti-</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">democratica</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">del TEPJF de </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">septiembre</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">4.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Derrota</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">y </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">desmoralizacion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">de la </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">izquierda</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">electoral</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">5.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Crisis </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">interna</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">del #YoSoy132 y de la </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Convencion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Nacional</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">6.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Contra-</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Reforma</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">neoliberal de la Ley Federal de </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Trabajo</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">7.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Paro</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">nacional</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">estudiantil</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">y </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">otros</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">paros</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">posibles</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">en </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">octubre</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">8.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">¿</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Parar</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">la </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">imposicion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">de EPN el 1 de </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">diciembre</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">9.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">¿</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Ahora</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">que</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 44.0pt; language: es-MX; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Preguntas</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">1.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Cooperativismo y control obrero: como? Donde? Con quien? De que? </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Democratico</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">? Igualitario? Capitalista o anti-capitalista? Comunitario o obrero? Que producir? La cuestión ecológica?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">2.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Autogestion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">: económica? </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Econo</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">-política? </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Econo</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">-político-socio-cultural?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">3.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Consejismo</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">obrero: anacronismo? Democracia directa asamblea obrera/multitudinaria vs. Democracia indirecta autoritaria </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">burgues</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">? </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Relacion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">con cooperativismo y autogestión?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 25.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: +mj-lt; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: &quot;numbullet3\,1&quot;;">4.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;">Organización obrera/multitudinaria: sindicatos independientes? Partidos políticos de la izquierda? Movimientos sociales anti-capitalistas?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 25pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 40.0pt; language: es-MX; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Conclusion</span><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 40.0pt; language: es-MX; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">: ¿hacia la democracia absoluta?</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.35in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.35in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 29.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: bullet;">¨</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">¡La democracia ha muerto! ¡Viva la democracia!</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.35in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.35in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 29.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: bullet;">¨</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">Corrupcion</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">y decadencia de la democracia liberal </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">burgues</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">en </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">Mexico</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">y mundialmente</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.35in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.35in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 29.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: bullet;">¨</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">Regresar al siglo XIX para avanzar en el siglo XXI</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.35in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.35in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-size: 29.0pt;"><span style="color: #f3a447; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 60%; mso-color-index: 5; mso-special-format: bullet;">¨</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">La clase obrera y la multitud como fuerzas </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">democratizantes</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">dentro, contra y mas </span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;">alla</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;"> de la agonía del capitalismo neoliberal-neoconservador-autoritario</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.35in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.35in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; font-size: 29pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_1uiWdQ_0TA/UHMx99QR_6I/AAAAAAAAASY/x0SayPkRZTU/s1600/CCI05102012_0000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_1uiWdQ_0TA/UHMx99QR_6I/AAAAAAAAASY/x0SayPkRZTU/s320/CCI05102012_0000.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-21b121b6f89938ab" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/get_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D21b121b6f89938ab%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1427555568%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source%26signature%3D58B84CEAFC03862C8F5C794CFA4BA6B094674AA8.53D7636903265C2446755DAD6F55173A5B57A4FA%26key%3Dck2&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D21b121b6f89938ab%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DJdfMdKj_ACmUCLUhfYMkUBhJJWg&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"><embed src="//www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D21b121b6f89938ab%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1427555568%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source%26signature%3D58B84CEAFC03862C8F5C794CFA4BA6B094674AA8.53D7636903265C2446755DAD6F55173A5B57A4FA%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D21b121b6f89938ab%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DJdfMdKj_ACmUCLUhfYMkUBhJJWg&autoplay=0&ps=blogger" allowFullScreen="true" /></object><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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font-size: 25pt;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.56in; margin-top: 7pt; text-indent: -0.56in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #444d26; font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; font-size: 44.0pt; language: es-MX; mso-ascii-font-family: &quot;Tw Cen MT&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-color-index: 3; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #444D26; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"><br /></span></div>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/10/preguntas-sobre-el-cooperativismo-el.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-5080476090706934907Mon, 10 Sep 2012 06:11:00 +00002012-09-09T23:17:51.937-07:00Antonio Negribecoming-princeMichael Hardtmultitudethe commonAnalysis of “Preface: The Becoming-Prince of the Multitude”, in Hardt & Negri, Commonwealth, Cambridge MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 20<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4dOM8mkf9wM/UE2F2KnlwrI/AAAAAAAAAR8/MqCMW834UUM/s1600/commonwealth.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4dOM8mkf9wM/UE2F2KnlwrI/AAAAAAAAAR8/MqCMW834UUM/s320/commonwealth.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5786428261850792626" /></a><br />Analysis of “Preface: The Becoming-Prince of the Multitude”, in Hardt &amp; Negri, Commonwealth, Cambridge MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2009: vii-xiv.<br />By Patrick Cuninghame (Sociology Lecturer, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico City)<br /><br />Commonwealth, published in 2009, is the third volume in the series that began with the groundbreaking Empire in 2000 and continued with Multitude: Democracy and War in an Age of Empire in 2004. In the first book the authors claimed that the globalization of capitalism was leading to the emergence of a new form of postnational sovereignty, “empire”, with the mixed constitution of the Roman Empire as its somewhat unlikely model (the US government as “emperor”, the advanced capitalist states, the transnational corporations and the main international organizations such as the UN, World Bank etc as the aristocratic “senate”, and the remaining nation states and peoples of the Third World, as well as the working classes of the First World, all lumped together now as “Multitude”, as the populist “democracy”) leading to the decline if not yet to the disappearance of the nation state on one hand, of imperialism on another, and of the international working class as the primary agent of history most importantly of all: all to the horror and revulsion of orthodox Marxists and left nationalists, particularly those of the resurgent leftist and anti-neoliberal regimes of Latin America where the books were lambasted, with the partial exception of Argentina, Latin America’s autonomist bastion. <br />This leads us neatly onto the second volume, aptly entitled “Multitude”, which focuses on the antagonist of Empire and the result of the evolution of the working class into a more amorphous entity, made up of a “plurality of singularities” (according to Deleuze, together with Foucault, especially his theories of biopolitics and biopower, even more important influences on the developing thought of Hardt and Negri than Marx or Italian workerism) which both incorporates and moves beyond the working class, the people and the proletariat, as the dominant anti-capitalist protagonists of modernity. Having established the superiority of Spinoza’s heterogeneous and inclusive “multitude” to Hobbes’ homogenous but exclusive “people”, and the transcendence of “working class” and “proletariat” as too narrow and homogenous analytical categories to be useful in today´s globalized, complex societies, particularly in the context of the hegemony of postfordist postmodern biopolitical network production since the mid 1970s. The emerging figure of multitude, whose political organizational form would be the post-Seattle “movement of movements”, however found itself after 9/11 in a completely altered global military-political conjuncture in which it was forced to put the struggle for “absolute democracy” (rather than indirect parliamentary or direct assembly democracy) centre stage before the involution of the emerging clintonesque “Empire” in the dubyah Bush years into petrolarchy-based neo-imperialism and the adventurism of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under the aegis of the “permanent global war against terrorism”, ostensibly aimed at curbing the rival ambitions of militant Islamism and of the phantasmagorical Al Qaeda in particular.<br />In 2009, to much less fanfare than the previous two volumes, Commonwealth was published in a very much changed global situation: the “movement of movements” struggles through the World Social Forum and other mobilizations to both prevent Bush’s global war against terrorism even before it had begun and make “another (postneoliberal) world possible” had dwindled and failed despite the massive mobilizations of 2003, 2005 and 2007; the neo-imperialist adventure of the “New American Century” neocons had been militarily defeated in Iraq and was in the process of being defeated in Afghanistan; last and certainly not least, perhaps the most serious economic crisis in capitalism´s crisis-laden history had begun exactly in the black heart of neoliberalism, the once burgeoning financial sector, laid low by the sub-prime crisis of autumn 2008, a crisis that will probably last until at least 2015-20 and will be even more devastating than the Depression of the 1930s. So what has happened to the concepts of Empire, Multitude and biopolitics/biopower in the intervening years? Why give a book centered on the second decade of the third millennium the same name as the brief English republic under the military dictator Oliver Cromwell in the mid 17th century?<br />The Preface begins with a brief discussion of the effects of globalization and emerging Empire, negative and then positive. The authors claim that one of the most important beneficial results has been the “creation of a common world” (p. vii), the first mention of a word and of a concept, “common”, which will frequently reappear. Hardt &amp; Negri contrast nihilist visions of the inescapable destruction and corruption wrought by globalization with the idea of ethical project that they wish to develop in the book: “an ethics of democratic political action within and against Empire” (p. vii), which could lead to a “possible global democracy”, they tentatively venture. Central to the creation of a “democracy of the multitude” (p. viii) is the Machiavellian idea of “Becoming-Prince”, through which the multitude learns the “art of self-government” (ibid.)<br />The basis for this global democracy of the multitude is the common, which they define as, firstly, “the common wealth of the material world” (air, water, nature, etc.), but above all as the “results of social production that are necessary for social interaction and further production” (ibid.) (knowledges, information, affects etc.). Overall, the notion focuses on practices of care, interaction and cohabitation in a common world, promoting the beneficial and limiting the detrimental forms of the common. So there are also negative aspects to this notion, which will be examined later. Questions of the maintenance, production and distribution of the common though social and ecological networks, in both its positive and negative attributes, are central to globalization.<br />A vital example of the common in its positive aspect is language, which finally cannot be subjected to private ownership or public authority. This idea of the false dichotomy between the public (linked also to the socialist world) and the private (evidently connected with capitalism) is a central characteristic of H&amp;N’s work on the common. Thus public, private, capitalist and socialist are all false alternatives in the discussion of the common. However the authors make plain their intention to reintroduce the practices of institutionalization as central to the safeguarding and progress of the “positive” common. <br />Another central aspect in the book is that there is presently a long term transition towards the common from capitalist production and private property via decentralized network production as open access to information and knowledge becomes key to commercial success yet capitalism is forced to defend private property, copyright and patents, continually checking and limiting this process so leading to a buildup of tension within the system that only a transition to the common can resolve.<br />As the authors put it, contemporary capitalist biopolitical production is not of objects to be consumed by the social subject but of subjectivity itself. The authors then explore the notion of biopolitical production through the ideas of Deleuze and Foucault around the dispositifs (mechanisms for the production of subjectivity) as part of the process of “becoming-other” (ibid.). In turn these results in the centrality of the control through struggles of such dispositifs to guarantee the autonomy of the subjectivities produced. “The multitude makes itself by composing in the common the singular subjectivities that result from this process” (ibid). <br />Returning to the original ethical intention of the book, the authors remind us that two of the main preoccupations of the work are poverty and love, notions that have a distinctly religious echo and draw us back to the author’s contentious claim at the end of Empire that Francis of Assisi was the ideal model of a communist militant. Some, like Holloway, took it as a quirky joke. They explore the development of the term “the poor” since the Middle Ages, until eventually replaced by the terms “proletariat” and “working class”, which curiously these Marxist (or post-Marxist?) authors attempt to escape by returning to the category of the “poor” as an antecedent for “multitude”. They contest the idea that “poor” implies lack, but rather possibility, in the sense that the poor are free from many of the social and work pressures of the “well off”, in the same way that precarious workers have less money and security than full-time guaranteed workers but more control over their time: “Our challenge will be to find ways to translate the productivity and possibility of the poor into power” (p. xi). Walter Benjamin also sought a new understanding of the term in the Thirties, concluding that from the ruins of the past, especially as a result of the First World War, the potential for a new positive form of barbarism had arisen.<br />Love too has changed in meaning during the 20th century and as a path toward the common. Although Marxists have often attacked love as the ideology of individualism and the egotistical family, leading inevitably back to the social isolation it seeks to escape from, the authors posit that a new concept of love can be related to the production of the common and of social life, a return to pre-modern ideas of love, such as those found in Socrates and Diotima, where love is born of poverty and invention. Some feminists have interpreted this classical version of love as the power of being defined by differences, a process of liberation. However, to buttress two such “weak” thoughts as love and poverty the authors recur to notions of force in Kant and Derrida: the former refers to intellectual force that can overcome dogmatism and nihilism and the second reminds of the necessity of physical force to change the world.<br />Finally the authors explain the somewhat quaint title of the book, as a return to some of the classic treatises on government, looking at institutions and constitutions in history. The first half of the book focuses on the concepts of republic, modernity and capital that obstruct and corrupt the natural development of the common. The second half looks at more contemporary developments in the common, looking for alternatives emerging from the multitude of the poor and the circuits of altermodernity. They look at recent developments in the construction of Empire and gauge the current state and potential of the multitude. They seek to overturn nihilism and open up the multitude’s processes of productivity and creativity, leading to revolution and the sharing of the common by all humanity, presumably in a stateless global post-Imperial society.<br />http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/09/analysis-of-preface-becoming-prince-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-2352660219686857005Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:49:00 +00002012-09-06T11:58:24.527-07:00#YoSoy132Institucionalizaciónla Otra Obreralucha socialPonencia detonadora para MESA 4. Institucionalización de la lucha social<br />de Patrick Cuninghame (profesor de la UAM-Xochimilco, miembro de SITUAM)<br /><br />La institucionalización ha sido históricamente y sigue siendo actualmente una de las formas más eficaces utilizadas por el capitalismo para dividir, cooptar, reprimir y marginalizar las luchas sociales radicalmente anti-capitalistas. En México esta estrategia estatal en el pasado ha tomado la forma del “plomo o plata” dirigida hacia la corrupción y cooptación de los líderes y caudillos de las luchas sociales, no tanto de sus seguidores, quienes según la lógica autoritaria habría siempre obedecido y seguido a sus mandos. Hoy existen métodos más sofisticados y engañosos para persuadir a los rebeldes a regresar a dormir y obedecer. Se puede y se debe criticar al nuevo movimiento #YoSoy132 por sus varias ingenuidades políticas y falsas conciencias pero una cosa que ha hecho muy bien ha sido desnudar la relación intensamente simbiótica entre los medios masivos corporativos y el sistema político “democrático” capitalista y sus intentos periódicos a reproducir un consenso a su favor a través de los procesamientos electorales mediatizados. La Escuela de Frankfurt en los años 30 ya había identificado la capacidad de los medios masivos y demás ramas de las industrias culturales a inducir integración, pacificación y falsos consensos como uno de los claves del control capitalista sobre una clase obrera adormentada, engañada e influida a la pasividad, la obediencia silenciosa, la resignación y la integración en el sistema capitalista con sus valores corruptos individualistas y consumistas.<br />Sin embargo, más allá de estos mecanismos sociales y cotidianos para garantizar la paz social de la sociedad capitalista por medio de la narcotización mediática, que representan el fondo de nuestras luchas sociales, estamos más interesados en las técnicas políticas del estado capitalista contemporáneo mexicano en institucionalizar las luchas sociales, así convirtiéndolas en procesos por su integración y consolidación en lugar de su debilitación y derrota. En fin queremos saber cómo identificar los mecanismos y procesos de la institucionalización política de las luchas sociales para evitarlos y superarlos.<br />Aquí sin duda el lopezobradorismo en particular y el prdismo y demás formas de la social democracia reformista y neoliberal “progresista” estilo Lula, liberalismo pseudo-radical y neo-institucional, también de algunos movimientos sociales o sectores a sus internos, han jugado el papel de los “tontos útiles” del sistema. Se puede debatir si el lopezobradorismo es mas “neo-keynesiano conservador” o “neoliberal progresista” pero sin duda ha sido sumamente eficaz en cooptar casi la totalidad de la izquierda extraparlamentaria mexicana a luchar día y noche (literalmente durante el plantón postelectoral en 2006) a favor de un capitalismo populista y “bueno” como único alternativo “realístico” al neoliberalismo tecnocrático, entreguista y desde 2007 abiertamente, violentamente y masivamente asesino. La situación ha llegado a tal extremo que votar para AMLO pareció la única forma para parar la guerra absurda de Calderón contra los narcos que ya ha costado más de 95,000 vidas desde 2007 según el último informe de la INEGI de agosto de este año. <br />Pero no solamente la izquierda histórica, obrera y sindicalista “independiente” parece haber aceptado y adoptado como suyo el discurso “amoroso” (o sea hay que aprender amar el capitalismo “bueno” populista para poder acabar con el capitalismo mafioso) de AMLO. También el sector de los “nuevos movimientos sociales” con sus valores “posmaterialistas” y objetivos políticos “poscomunistas”, de antemano el #YoSoy132, objetivamente han caído en la trampa de la institucionalización. Este movimiento sin duda rompió la esterilidad de una campaña electoral particularmente aburrida en mayo de este año cuando desnudó la dependencia no solamente de Peña Nieto pero de hecho de toda la clase política de su alianza con los medios masivos en general y con el duopolio (ahora monopolio desde junio) de Televisa y Teleazteca. Aunque declaró su intención de ampliar y profundizar su lucha contra el neoliberalismo (hasta se menciono la palabra capitalismo algunas veces) y de aliarse con movimientos que constituyeron la Otra Campaña en 2006 como el FPDT de Atenco en su primer Asamblea Interuniversitaria en las Islas de CU finales de mayo ( hasta aquí la única vez que ese movimiento practicó la democracia participativa, directa e incluyente antes de recaer en la democracia representativa, indirecta y excluyente en todas las demás asambleas interuniversitarias desde entonces) no ha podido escapar el neo-institucionalismo de su ala derecha protagonizada por muchos de los académicos de las universidades públicas y privadas y por buena parte de los estudiantes de las privadas y hasta algunos de las públicas. A pesar de un sinfín de pruebas de la corrupción irremediable de las actuales instituciones electorales desde IFE a TEPJF a los mismos partidos políticos, casi dos meses después del enésimo fraude electoral del 1 de julio se sigue con la absurda pretensión que las mismas instituciones electorales y políticas fraudulentas y corruptas van a suicidarse políticamente y declarar las elecciones anuladas. Mientras tanto algunas coyunturas críticas para la lucha de clases anti-capitalista han llegado e ido casi sin un esfuerzo serio por parte del 132 y sus movimientos y redes sociales asociados. Nada mas pensamos en la marcha de los estudiantes rechazados que este año fue de lo mismo tamaño relativamente pequeño como todos los años a pesar que el 90% de los aspirantes fueron excluidos por UNAM y por la cual el 132 no movilizo seriamente, perdido en su obsesión electoralista, mediática y neo-institucionalista. El 132 sin duda es uno de los movimientos sociales más importantes en la historia reciente de México y de América Latina y evidentemente acaba de iniciar sus luchas. Además es un movimiento necesariamente en conflicto con se mismo, con la presencia de una derecha liberal importante pero no muy aceptada por su izquierda mayoritaria pero por el momento desplazada y confundida por el actual enfoque electoralista y legalista. Es un movimiento que todavía podría volverse radicalmente anti-capitalista mientras manteniendo sus características masivas, pacificas e innovadoras pero no antes de separarse y alejarse del liberalismo lopezobradorista y neo-institucional.<br />Es cierto que necesitamos nuevas instituciones externas al estado capitalista para consolidar los avances en nuestras luchas antes de poder finalmente derrumbar un sistema pasando por su peor crisis económica, institucional y de credibilidad en los 500 años de su historia infame. Los zapatistas ya nos han señalado que la construcción de tales instituciones revolucionarias y extraestatales desde abajo es factible y necesaria con la constitución de las JBG y de los Caracoles desde 2003. Tambien los levantamientos de la multitud en 2011 y 2012 en Medio Oriente, en España, Grecia, Inglaterra, Chile, Estados Unidos y Quebec y en muchos otros países y ciudades, nos enseñan que el camino hacia la democracia absoluta no pasa por las instituciones liberales capitalistas, diseñadas específicamente por la captura, cooptación e institucionalización de las luchas civiles, obreras y campesinas anti-capitalistas. Al contrario, pasa desde abajo y por la izquierda por las instituciones extraestatales, incluyentes, participativas, construidas y constituidas por nosotros cada día a través de nuestras luchas, al fin la verdadera forma democrática y la única libre de fraudes y manipulaciones mediáticas en este o en cualquier país.http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/09/ponencia-detonadora-para-mesa-4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-4732854126729743886Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:25:00 +00002012-09-06T11:34:14.867-07:00arte protestacarta abiertaIglesia Ortodoxa RusaPussy RiotRusiaUna carta abierta en apoyo de Pussy Riot (traducción)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZyK5Qekxw04/UEjsknTVPpI/AAAAAAAAARo/enOozscyW9o/s1600/pussy-riot_s.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZyK5Qekxw04/UEjsknTVPpI/AAAAAAAAARo/enOozscyW9o/s320/pussy-riot_s.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5785133835126914706" /></a><br />Por la Facultad de la Escuela de Rodchenko en Fotografía y Creación de Arte, de Moscú, y otros miembros de la comunidad del arte ruso<br />Nosotros, profesores de la Escuela de Rodchenko en Fotografía y Creación de Arte y otros miembros de la comunidad artística de Rusia, estamos muy alarmados por el juicio de las tres jóvenes acusadas de vandalismo como resultado de su desempeño en la Catedral de Cristo Salvador. Muchos de nosotros conocemos muy bien a una de ellas, nuestra alumna artista Ekaterina Samutsevich, pero también sabemos de las demás, Maria Alyokhina y Tolokonnikova Nadezhda, a partir de sus actuaciones. Escribimos esta carta para expresar nuestra solidaridad con ellas y también para elaborar algunos puntos que pertenecen a nuestro ámbito de competencia profesional.<br />Las acusaciones contra Pussy Riot son falsas e hipócritas. Se basan en el "sacrilegio", un término que no existe en la legislación penal vigente. Son una forma disfrazada de la represión política: nadie habría perseguido a estas mujeres si habían pedido a la Virgen María defender Putin, aunque de una manera no tradicional. El juicio contra Pussy Riot es un juicio contra disidentes, y la forma en que las acusadas han sido tratadas y detenidas ha sido excesivamente severa. Como ciudadanos, estamos indignados por este proceso represivo y, al igual que muchas otras personas en nuestro país y en todo el mundo, demandamos un fin a esta vergonzosa burla de la justicia y la plena reivindicación y liberación de Pussy Riot.<br />Las personas involucradas en el arte contemporáneo en Rusia tienen una razón particular para estar indignadas y alarmadas. Durante el juicio, la frase "arte contemporáneo", fue siempre, cuando proferida por la Fiscalía, acompañada por la adición de la burla "el llamado." Su derecho a existir fue interrogado así. Estaba implícito que el arte contemporáneo es una especie de vandalismo, que, para colmo de males, se apoya "en el extranjero." Por lo tanto consideramos necesario pronunciarse sobre esta cuestión.<br />El arte contemporáneo, por su propia naturaleza, es una declaración pública sobre el presente. Sus temas y formas pueden variar, pero si el día de hoy es tal y como aparece en la Rusia de hoy-a día de hoy se caracteriza por la anarquía, la falta de decisión política, la opresión criminal de los ciudadanos por parte de las autoridades, la ausencia de tribunales imparciales, el oscurantismo y el fundamentalismo - entonces el artista no tiene más remedio que dejar de preocuparse por los matices formales y convertirse en un artista político. Sería imposible e inmoral trazar fronteras aquí, y nos negamos a aceptar las otras nociones de arte y más seguro para las autoridades, que se nos impone.<br />El arte es siempre un acto. Para ser oído en la Rusia contemporánea, el artista se ve obligado a participar en actos extremos. Esto ha sido demostrado por el enorme impacto que la acción de Pussy Riot ha tenido.<br />Sin embargo, apoyamos Pussy Riot no porque pensemos que son titulares de derechos especiales con respecto a otros ciudadanos-por ejemplo, el derecho a la "provocación". La provocación insensata nunca ha sido el objetivo de los verdaderos artistas. Como artistas, Pussy Riot no tienen derechos especiales, pero tienen un deber especial-el deber de representar a una sociedad cuya voluntad política está encadenado, una sociedad privada de libertad y justicia, una sociedad con una pobre comprensión de los derechos humanos, una sociedad cuya boca es políticamente amordazada y cuyos ojos están cegados por los canales de televisión mendaces. Pussy Riot confirmó esta obligación en su totalidad. Gracias a su acción y la reacción de las autoridades a que, en la actualidad hay personas en todas las partes del país que han comenzado a comprender lo que les está sucediendo.<br />Como expertos, muchos de nosotros estamos constantemente preguntándose cómo se evalúa la calidad del desempeño de Pussy Riot. Algunos de nosotros pensamos que desde el primer momento que fue excepcional, mientras que otros nos hemos cambiado de opinión con el tiempo. La calidad de una obra de arte no está contenida en la propia obra, sino que se refleja, más bien, a su alcance, su impacto, en los comentarios del artista que la hizo, y, en gran medida, de la reacción del público a la misma. La acción de Pussy Riot es una obra de arte protesta y arte activista increíblemente poderosa: se ha puesto de manifiesto los males profundos en nuestra sociedad, que su impacto se seguirán sintiendo durante mucho tiempo por venir. Es sólo gracias a Pussy Riot que hemos empezado a hablar de cosas que no han sido objeto de debate durante muchos años. Durante los meses de su detención, las autoridades y la Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa se hicieron más y más implacable, Pussy Riot ha adquirido cada vez más valor, y se creció ante nuestros ojos enormemente. Durante el juicio, sus declaraciones y comentarios públicos eran claros, filosóficamente profunda y moralmente impecable. Estamos orgullosos de ellos. Esos discursos, sin duda, como la acción en la Catedral de Cristo Salvador, encontraran su lugar en la historia de la vida social rusa.<br />También debemos hacer hincapié en que nuestro apoyo a Pussy Riot no implica una postura anti-clerical, y lo mismo puede decirse de los artistas injustamente acusados. La postura adoptada por la Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa en este caso contradice los sentimientos, los pensamientos, los intereses y la fe de muchos creyentes ordinarios, cuyos ojos se han abierto por el caso Pussy Riot a la situación real en el país y en la iglesia. Dividir la sociedad (y el mundo del arte) en creyentes y no creyentes, sólo beneficia a las autoridades y los dirigentes corruptos de la Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa. Pussy Riot hablaba en nombre de todos, y los apoyamos en esto.<br />El arte contemporáneo no es sólo el arte de los no creyentes, o sólo para el culto, o sólo para los ricos. Es para aquellos que están preocupados por lo que está sucediendo en el presente. El arte contemporáneo debe ser la conciencia de la sociedad, y que la conciencia puede decir cosas desagradables o dolorosas de la sociedad, a veces de una manera que es irritante e incómoda. No se separa de la gente común: es la primera en sentir el dolor, expresarlo y por lo tanto trata de curarla. Nos alegramos de que Pussy Riot-como hemos llegado a conocer durante el juicio-por fin nos muestra la imagen de lo que el artista en Rusia debería ser: no es un provocador sin sentido y bromista, pero un orador, un ciudadano, un héroe.<br />El impacto de su acción es tal que nos parece absolutamente correcto que Pussy Riot sea nominado para el Premio Kandinsky en el "Proyecto del Año". También es necesario responder a la acusación frecuente que los artistas trabajan para premios. Todos los involucrados en el arte contemporáneo en Rusia saben que, dada la ausencia casi total de las subvenciones y la educación profesional, los premios son la única forma de apoyo material y moral mutuo a disposición de la comunidad artística. Por la nominación de Pussy Riot, la comunidad artística destaca su solidaridad ante una amenaza común. Apoyamos esto y va a hacer todo lo posible para aumentar la sensación del mundo del arte contemporáneo, de su fuerza, la solidaridad y la independencia en relación con el régimen injusto actual.<br />Muchos de nosotros-rusas artistas, curadores y críticos-de trabajo en un contexto internacional y saben muy bien cómo nuestro país es considerado en los círculos culturales de todo el mundo. La reputación de Rusia ahora es muy malo y ya está próxima a la de Bielorrusia, que es un punto en blanco en el mapa cultural.<br />Declaramos con toda seriedad que un veredicto de culpabilidad en el juicio Pussy Riot, no importa que supuestamente "light" el castigo subsecuente sea, causará un daño irreparable a la reputación internacional de Rusia (en caso de que la reputación todavía se puede guardar) y poner fin a la integración de nuestra país en el contexto cultural internacional. Será un veredicto en todo el país, en todos nosotros. Un boicot cultural no es una mera frase vacía si no hay otra manera de influir en lo que sucede en nuestro país.<br />Exigimos que la corte completamente reivindica Maria Alyokhina, Samutsevich Yekaterina y Tolokonnikova Nadezhda.<br />Firmado por:<br />Sergei Bratkov<br />Daniil Bolshakov<br />Aristarkh Chernyshev<br />Ekaterina Degot<br />Vladislav Efimov<br />Aleskandr Evangely<br />Antonio Geusa<br />Dmitry Kabakov<br />Evgenia Kikodze<br />Ilya Korobkov<br />Sergei Jachatúrov<br />Anastasia Khoroshilova<br />Romano Minaev<br />Elizaveta Morozova<br />Valery Nistratov<br />Lyubov Pchelkina<br />Kirill Preobrazhensky<br />Igor Vyazanichev<br />David Riff<br />Alexei Shulgin<br />Andrei Smirnov<br />Yuri Spitsin<br />Irina Uspenskaya<br />Lyudmila Zinchenko<br />* Publicado en chtodelat news y <a href="http://http://uninomade.org/open-letter-in-support-of-pussy-riot/">traducido </a>del inglés por Patrick Cuninghame<br />http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/09/una-carta-abierta-en-apoyo-de-pussy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-8005212591221764097Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:34:00 +00002012-07-12T18:43:32.367-07:00leyes internetneoliberalización de la universidad publica y privadanueva universidad incluyentepatentesprecarizacióntodo el conocimiento para todosHora de iniciar una discusión sobre la neoliberalización de la universidad publica y privada21:20 (hace 22 horas)<br /><br />para yosoy132academ. <br />Estimad@s colegas:<br /><br />Creo que mas que nunca sea necesario seguir y acompañar el ejemplo del movimiento estudiantil y ampliar nuestra agenda para incluir propuestas mas allá de la actual coyuntura electoral, sobretodo iniciar una discusión sobre la neoliberalización de la universidad publica y privada, la precarización de nuestras condiciones de trabajo y pago, los intentos a controlar, limitar y comercializar acceso al conocimiento por medio de patentes y leyes internet contra la "piratería" etc. y como proponemos a resistir estas iniciativas neo-liberales y restrictivas sin caer en una defensa nostálgica de la universidad publica/privada del pasado con todas sus limitaciones. Mas bien tenemos que buscar la creación de una nueva universidad incluyente, gratuita, laica, abierta, de calidad que se base en la socialización de todo el conocimiento para todos donde todos los trabajadores universitarios tienen derecho a un sueldo digno sin fluctuaciones y con condiciones seguras de trabajo para que México pueda avanzar hacia la constitución desde abajo de una sociedad del conocimiento democrático, libre y emancipatorio.<br /><br />saludos,<br /><br />Patrick Cuninghame (profesor de sociología de la UAM-Xochimilco)<br /><br />El 11 de julio de 2012 20:47, Mario Ortega Olivares <orom3192@correo.xoc.uam.mx> escribió:<br /><br /><br />Silvia Tamez Gonzalez stamez@correo.xoc.uam.mx<br />09:06 (hace 10 horas)<br /><br />para yosoy132academ. <br />Patrick: <br />Me parecen muy importantes tus comentarios. También yo soy de la opinión de que hay que rebasar lo electoral. Eso no quiere decir que no acompañemos a las fuerzas que pugnan por deslegitimar completamente los comisios y también lo que siga después. Sin embargo, efectivamente, ni aunque hubiera ganado López Obrador, los sensibles problemas que tienen nuestras universidades públicas, demandan propuestas de los universitarios, precisamente en defensa del carácter público y autónmo de nuestras universidades. <br />Creo que es importante plantearlas en nuestra reunión el próximo lunes. Yo me disculpo pues no podré asistir. <br />Silvia Tamez <br /><br />-- <br />UAM Xochimilco (http://cueyatl.uam.mx)http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/07/2120-hace-22-horas-para-yosoy132academ.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-3260099189580815443Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:55:00 +00002012-07-06T19:57:56.061-07:00mexico-cityneoliberalismPeña Nietoworkers' rightsUPDATE ON MEXICO, 6 JULY 2012the PRI, PAN and the right-wing of the PRD, the "Chuchos", have already begun to negotiate a special legislatory session before Peña Nieto takes power on December 1st. At the trop of the list is the new Federal Law on Work which will be a lynchpin neoliberal act and cancel any remaining worker rights under the already pro-boss Ley Federal de Trabajo, under attack are the rights of young people entering their first job who will be reduced to slavery, wages will be "optional". For more see: http://zubietaylanda.com/pdf/ley_federal_del_trabajo.pdf (present law comparison in spanish and englkish); http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/04/03/politica/017n1pol (proposed changes). For Peña Nieto's neoliberal programme see his recent article in New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/opinion/mexicos-next-chapter.html?_r=1&ref=global-home. I also recommedn you to visit John Ackerman's blog, although his vuiewpoint is more liberal radical, neo-institutional, but very thorough: http://www.johnackerman.blogspot.mx/.http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/07/update-on-mexico-6-july-2012.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-4042204353336178538Thu, 05 Jul 2012 01:38:00 +00002012-07-12T18:18:39.371-07:00le langagel’ironiemouvement italien de 1977Un rire qui vous enterrera tous – L’ironie comme protestation et le langage comme lutte dans le mouvement italien de 1977Posted on 3 mai 2012 by catsUn texte sur « l’ironie comme protestation et le langage comme lutte dans le mouvement italien de 1977 » ou comment l’usage subversif du langage peut aider à ridiculiser les représentations et les pratiques politiques autoritaires, staliniennes, sociales-démocrates, gauchistes… Un rire qui vous enterrera tous - Italie 1977 (100,9 Ko, 111 hits)<a href="http://ablogm.com/cats/2012/05/03/un-rire-qui-vous-enterrera-tous-italie-1977/"></a><br /><br />http://ablogm.com/cats/2012/05/03/un-rire-qui-vous-enterrera-tous-italie-1977/http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/07/un-rire-qui-vous-enterrera-tous-italie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-7538975914822415528Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:43:00 +00002012-07-04T18:39:18.521-07:00mexico-citypatrick-cuninghamestudent-led-uprising-in-mexicoyosoy132YoSoy132: Student-led Uprising in Mexico – An interview with Patrick Cuninghame (Professor, Mexico City)<a href="http://classwaru.org/2012/06/11/yosoy132-student-led-uprising-in-mexico-an-interview-with-patrick-cuninghame-professor-mexico-city/"> </a>POSTED BY NOOUTSIDE ⋅ JUNE 11, 2012 ⋅ 20 COMMENTS FILED UNDER YOSOY132, MEXICO, LATIN AMERICA, ANTI-CORRUPTION, UPRISING, ELECTORAL FRAUD, MEDIA DEMOCRACY, EZLN, ZAPATISTAS, OCCUPY, OWS <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://classwaru.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/newsfilename_47078_manifestacion_132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="1200" width="1801" src="http://classwaru.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/newsfilename_47078_manifestacion_132.jpg" /></a></div> CW: What is the deal with YoSoy132? Patrick: It’s kind of a weird movement, because it started in the private universities, in a very upper class Catholic private university called Iberoamericana. It’s probably one of the more progressive private universities, because it has a quite independent and active faculty trade union. It arose in response to Enrique Peña Nieto who is the PRI candidate for president. The PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) was in power continuously from 1929 to 2000, one of the world’s longest running dictatorships, guilty of incredible abuses of human rights. The most infamous one was the massacre of Tlatelolco on October 2nd, 1968, just before the Olympics, when the Mexican army and paramilitaries killed around 500 people in a square near the center of Mexico City. It’s never been properly investigated. The ex-Mexican president, Luis Echevarria who was the minister of Internal Affairs when that happened, was briefly arrested and charged with genocide in 2006, but was almost immediately released. In spite of all their crimes, they’re on the point of being re-elected after just 12 years out of power. It’s like fascism coming back. The problem is that the party that’s been in power, the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional), has been as bad if not worse than the PRI. So, it’s just gone from the frying pan to the fire and back to the frying pan again. 60,000 have died in these last 6 years of President Calderon from the ‘war against drugs,’ which in reality has been a war against the whole population, at the same time a new form of governance and a new theatre in the “global war against terrorism”. It’s been government through military dictatorship that we’ve had in Mexico since 2006, and the electoral fraud in 2006, too, that started it. Of course there’s a real danger of another electoral fraud. Until May 11th it seemed like Enrique Peña Nieto was going to win the elections easily. There had already been one or two setbacks for him. First, at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in December last year, he was asked what were the three most important books in his life, and he couldn’t name one. He is just such a complete airhead, an ignoramus. This is the guy who’s going to be the next president of Mexico! So, that was a setback for him in terms of public relations, but nothing like what happened at the Iberoamericana on May 11th, when he went to visit it. He probably expected to get just a really easy ride, because nothing much has happened at the university in years. When he arrived, there were hundreds of students with banners that said things like “Remember Atenco”—which is this town near Mexico City, where when he was governor of the State of Mexico (the state surrounding Mexico City), there was a really vicious repression of the People’s Front for the Defense of the Land (FPDT in Spanish), on the 3rd of May 2006, during the Zapatistas’ Other Campaign. He and then president Fox sent the army and police in and they just massacred the population. They wanted revenge for the defeat of their plans by the FPDT to build a new international airport near Atenco in 2002. I’d never seen such vicious repression—groups of 20-30 police attacking anybody, innocent bystanders. They killed two youths: a UNAM student and a local youth. Houses were raided without search warrants and about two hundred people were just dragged off the streets and taken to prison, and during the bus journey to prison about 30 women were raped or sexually abused by the police in the busses or while getting on or off the busses.[i] It was the rape of Atenco by this butcher. And Enrique Peña Nieto is going to be the next president. Fortunately, these guys (the students at the Iberoamericana) woke up and gave him a really, really hard time. In fact, at one point he was about to abandon his visit, because he was being harassed so much by the students. There’s this beautiful video of him and his bodyguards and the authorities of the university just not knowing what the hell to do—there’s this expression of panic on his face, just completely taken by surprise. Even when he had the meeting, most of the questions were really hostile against him. Under his governorship, the state of Mexico went completely backwards: the number of poor people increased, human rights abuses increased, femicides increased, and so on. He had no answer. Well, for a man who literally depends on the teleprompter for what to say, he had just nothing to say. He just didn’t answer the questions. It was just a complete public relations disaster for him. But, what happened was, that he has been supported by the two main TV channels, Televisa and TV Azteca, which dominate open TV in Mexico (the free TV), with their telenovelas, these ridiculous soap operas, which dominate coverage—12 hours a day of soaps—a complete manipulation and infantilization of the public. He is their candidate and they’re determined that he’s going to be elected. It also appears the PRI paid huge amounts of money since 2005 to guarantee positive coverage and promote Peña Nieto as a future presidential candidate. So, when that visit to Iberoamericana was televised on the news, they completely edited out all of the demonstrations. It was just incredible. If you compare what happened with what was presented on TV, it’s just two different worlds. And then the various media spokespersons—the president of the PRI, the intellectuals close to the PRI and Televisa—they all attacked the students, saying that they were just members of the PRD, the opposing party of the PRI, the party of the center left, very moderate (López Obredor, who might win the elections). They were saying, ‘these weren’t really students. These were people belonging to the PRD who were sent to the Iberoamericana that day. They’re thugs’—the most ridiculous accusations. If these intellectuals, the spokespersons of the PRI, hadn’t made these really crass accusations, the thing would have died there. But, fortunately, the students had the bullocks to respond. And about 131 of them went online, on YouTube, with their student cards, and said, ‘I am a student of this university, this is my student credential, and how dare the PRI accuse us of not being students.’ Our demonstration was completely genuine. That’s what’s called the ‘Somos Mas de 131′ movement that came out of Iberamericana, on Monday the 14th of May, after this demonstration on the 11th of May. And then, it’s just grown from there. Student Demonstration, May 31st - [pic via VertigoPolitico] Of course Televisa was saying it wasn’t an ‘authentic demonstration.’ So, they had a human chain from their university to the head office of Televisa in that part of Mexico City. Just a few hundred turned up from various private universities. The next step was to connect with the public universities. The first really big event was on Wednesday, 23rd May: there was a big demonstration in the center of Mexico City, under this monument that was supposed to be opened in 2010, on the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. But because of corruption and various delays it didn’t actually open until earlier this year. It’s called the Estela de Luz (The Pillar of Light). It’s a big tower that is completely ugly and useless and cost far too much. So, they chose this monument as a meeting place, as an example of the kind of corruption, impunity and ineptitude that they are opposing. They called a general meeting of students from private and public universities to go to that place. Far more people went than they expected—I think about 20,000 students, young people, and ordinary citizens turned up. And that’s really how the Yo Soy 132 movement took off. Since then, just about every day there’s been some kind of public meeting somewhere. All the meetings are completely open to anybody to attend, and in open places outside. Since Wednesday, the 20th of May, just about every single university in the country, certainly all in Mexico City, has set up its own branch of this movement. It’s all being coordinated on the website of #yosoy132. It’s a kind of social network. In my university, the UAM Xochimilco (the Metropolitan Autonomous University), which is historically a left-wing public university (Subcomandante Marcos was an Arts & Design Lecturer there until he went underground in 1983), last Friday, May 25th, about 100 students turned up—about half student activists and half students who were just curious. Most of my students in the University come from working class, lower-middle class backgrounds—very different from Iberoamericana, which is upper class. It’s amazing that this thing started there; even upper class kids are pissed off at the situation in Mexico, even though the economy is run entirely for their benefit. Still, they’re sick of the corruption and media manipulation. So, this is what kick-started it all off. The students there thought, ‘this movement has to become much bigger than us, much bigger than the private universities.’ The majority of students are in public universities, and of course the social composition of the public universities is completely different. Student Demo – May 28th - [pic via Vertigo Politico] CW: Could you say a little more about the composition of this movement? Have any faculty gotten involved in it or is it totally student-led? Patrick: At the moment it is student-led, and I hope it remains that way, because the worst thing that could happen is for the usual intellectuals to take it over. When they had this big meeting in the center of town—at the monument to celebrate the 100th anniversary of independence but which everybody sees as a monument to corruption—there were a lot of university professors and intellectuals and ex-activist, ‘leaders’ from the 1968 movement (they’re all obsessed with being ‘leaders’ of that movement, which is completely different from this movement—and student movements around the world—they’re leaderless). Everybody’s realizing that it’s a special movement. 2006 was a bit like now, a really euphoric moment. I am in the Other Campaign of the EZLN. We oppose the campaign of López Obredor, because we know that he is really a politician of the center right, a neoliberal “progressive” like Lula in Brazil or the Kirchners in Argentina, but he is able to present himself as being of the center left because the other two parties are of the hard neoliberal, neo-con right (The PRI and the PAN). He likes to make a lot of promises about how he’s going to change Mexico, but when he was mayor of Mexico City he adopted ‘zero tolerance’ to repress street vendors and he gentrified the historical center of Mexico City in alliance with the richest man in Mexico, Carlos Slim, so we know that not much is going to change under him, at least not for the better. But still, in 2006 we thought, ‘he’s bound to win,’ because he seemed by far the most popular candidate. We never thought that there was going to be an electoral fraud. But there was, and Calderon became president. The first thing he did was to start this war against the ‘narcos,’ which was in reality a war against working class Mexicans. It’s been downhill since then: it’s been massacre after massacre. The left has just been kind of paralyzed in front of this war, this massacre that’s been going on continuously. So it’s been a really depressing time, these last six years. And also, the electoral campaign has been completely boring, virtually without content, and then, suddenly, this student movement came out of nowhere. We didn’t expect it. Certainly, we are in front of a completely new situation. There was a meeting on May 25th in the Plaza de Las Tres Culturas (exactly where the massacre took place in 1968), of delegates from all the universities and they have made a declaration of what their aims are now as a movement. Of course it’s quite moderate, if you compare it to the Montreal or Chilean students movements. Their main demand continues to be the democratization of the media. But if we really had a democratized media in Mexico, that would be incredible. If you democratized the media anywhere, that would be incredible! There is of course a certain amount of naivety to think that the Mexican media—which is completely under the control of the worst kind of neoliberalism and of the mafia and the drug cartels—is suddenly going to become democratic; it’s just not going to happen. Nor did it happen in the US or Britain or any other so called democracy. The media is not free or neutral in any country in the world, especially not during elections. It’s a naive demand, but in some ways it has opened up the whole election by exposing the dependence of the political class, particularly their candidate Peña Nieto, on mass media manipulation. I would say that as things stand at the moment, Peña Nieto is in trouble. Everywhere he goes now there are thousands of people opposing him, chanting slogans at him, with placards, etc. A week ago, the PRI responded as they always do: with violence. They just send their thugs to attack students who are opposing any meeting of Peña Nieto. Now, that rebounded against them, because it’s bad publicity—using violence, intolerance against any form of opposition. It looks like the bad old “dinosaur” PRI is definitely back, never mind the talk of a “democratized” PRI. CW: Is the media covering that violence? Patrick: Yeah, in a way they have to. They can’t ignore it. The students are at the center of public attention. They’re denouncing the violence, so the TV and press have to report it. Normally they would not report it. It was a trending topic on Twitter last week—one of the top ten topics in the whole world. I read in the newspaper today that Peña Nieto had an election meeting in some provincial city, and when the opposition turned up to attack him, to denounce him, to chant slogans at him, at a public meeting of the PRI, he told his followers not to do anything, which is unusual, because normally the PRI respond by physically attacking any opposition or criticism of them. He just feels so on the defensive that he has to tell his thugs not to do anything. At the moment, suddenly, the election is thrown open. Of course, Peña Nieto is still the favorite. Even if it becomes a close election, the PRI are experts in electoral fraud, and they won’t hesitate in doing it again. The PAN got away with it in 2006 and the PRI will get away with it this year. But, if it’s a very obvious electoral fraud, there could be a massive backlash. Of course the other two parties are trying to manipulate the situation. The PAN called an anti-EPN march. Quite a lot of people went to it, but it was an obvious attempt by the PAN to jump on the bandwagon. López Obrador had a meeting with the students in this symbolic place where the massacre happened in 1968, about a week before the Yo Soy 132 meeting, but again this was another attempt to manipulate the movement. Because of the origins of this movement, most of the left, me included, was very dubious about it. You know, a movement by rich private students against Peña Nieto: this doesn’t make sense. So, there has been a lot of diffidence towards the movement by the historic left: the institutional left and the extra-parliamentary left. A lot of people, students and faculty, in my university seemed wary of this movement. CW: Are they trying to influence the movement? Is anybody from the Other Campaign trying? Patrick: Yes, of course they are trying to jump in on the bandwagon. But, they just said it in a manifesto that they put out (which I translated and put up on facebook) that it is a non-party movement. They are against Peña Nieto; they are against the PRI. Peña Nieto is a fascist and he has shown that again and again—the way he repressed the movement in Atenco was completely fascist. If he becomes president, that’s going to be his political style, just really hard-line, vicious repression: use of rape against arrested women, things like that. Of course he’s tried to moderate his image, recently. Above all we know who’s behind him. He himself is completely stupid—someone who can’t come up with the names of three authors or books that are important in his life. So, in reality, when he is president he won’t be president—there will be people behind him telling him what to do. The most important of those will be Carlos Salinas, the president between 1988 and 1994 and the architect of NAFTA, which has devastated the Mexican economy and has caused so much poverty, and which kicked off the Zapatista rebellion in 1994, on the 1st of January, which was when it came into operation. So, we know who’s going to be the real president of Mexico: Salinas (not to mention Obama). Salinas is a drug traffiker as well, a real mafioso. His brother Raul went to prison for several years for his drug traffiking and for the assassination of Luis Colosio, the PRI’s maverick presidential candidate in 1994. Salinas is a neoliberal drug lord and one of the lynchpins of global neoliberalism, he would have become president of the WTO in 1994 but the Zapatistas rained on his parade. He will just devastate an already devastated country. So, the movement is non-party, but it is not a-political, as it has been accused of by some people on the intellectual left. It is against the PRI and it is against Peña Nieto above all. That does not mean it is pro-López Obrador or pro-Vasquez Mota (the candidate of the PAN who is on the right of an extreme right-wing, clerical, neoliberal party). In my first reaction to this movement, I thought that this looks like a movement of the PAN, because it is strong in private universities. But it seems it is not. It is rather a movement that wants to radically reform things in a non-violent way. It is, I repeat, a moderate students movement, not a radical movement like the Onda Anomola in Italy or the Red Square movement in Canada. Maybe it is more like the English students movement in 2010. Of course the English students movement had some pretty radical elements in it, they attacked and set fire to the HQ of the Tory Party! Maybe now that the public universities are involved it will become more radical. It’s obviously not as radical as the 1999-2000 UNAM CGH (Consejo General de Huelga/General Strike Council) student occupation movement when they had a strike for one year and they shut down Mexico’s most important public university to stop even minimal fee hikes, which has had a lasting effect in slowing down the neoliberalization of the Mexican public university compared to most other countries. CW: What is the relationship between this student movement and the universities themselves? You’ve been talking a lot about their relation with electoral politics, but do they have any focus on changing universities? Patrick: I think this movement was born in the middle of a really dull election campaign that seemed dominated by a corrupt, fascist candidate, and they have hit the nail on the head that this candidate depends on the support of the media, and therefore, the media have to be reformed. Of course the reform of the media is crying out, but the political class are unable to do it because they are completely corrupt and at the behest of the media. So if there is a reform of the media in Mexico, it will have to come from below. This movement will go on after the July 1st presidential campaign. That’s evident. There’s this huge upswell of support for it. It will hopefully last like the Occupy Wall Street movement, going on for months if not years. So, therefore, after the presidential campaign is over, the movement has to focus on what is going on in the universities, wehich are being privatized and neoliberalized on the sly. They already put in their manifesto, in their demands, which will now go to a general assembly on Wednesday May 30th in the UNAM—which is the biggest university in the Americas, 500,000 students—this document that they produce will have to be ratified by that meeting. I think it’s going to be huge, tens of thousands of people. It’s really exciting… I haven’t felt like this for years, about any movement. Out of despair has come hope. One of the demands is that all higher education must be free, secular and of high quality—like the Chilean student movement. In fact, in their demands, they are calling to build links with the Chilean student movement and Occupy Wall Street. Unfortunately, they didn’t mention the Montreal student movement. The press coverage of that movement has been non-existent. So, it is exciting that they want to build those links and by doing so this will help to radicalize further the movement and reduce the influence of left nationalism and lopez obradorism. Occupy Wall Street has introduced this term of “The Mexican Spring,” but I think it’s too early to talk about a Mexican Spring. Obviously the movement here is not yet as radical or as important as the Arab Spring, especially the one in Tunisia and Egypt. We can’t talk about regime change yet. But, if the impossible happens, and we do defeat the PRI and their attempt to have an electoral fraud… The movement is already mobilizing massively to prevent electoral fraud. There are always people present in voting stations during elections, but I think this time, it’s going to be literally dozens of people in every voting station to stop electoral fraud (ballot stuffing, stealing of electoral urns, all the usual shenanigans that the PRI get up to on election day). I think it’ll be much harder for the PRI to have an electoral fraud. Until this, what would have been an unimaginable situation, if Lopez Obredor does get elected, there will be massive demonstrations demanding immediate constitutional, political reform, to get rid of this all-powerful presidential figure that dominates Mexican politics. I think regime change is not completely out of the question. We have to see how things go in the next few weeks. The forces of reaction are gathering. They’ve been hit, humiliated, kicked where it hurts—but you can’t rule them out. They’ve been in power for 82 years, and they’re not going to give up power easily. They control the media, the universities, and the political parties (including those of the center left). At the moment, they really don’t know how to deal with this movement, because I think they realize that if they simply repress it, it’ll grow—like in Egypt or in the US with Occupy Wall Street. Then again, it’s a movement that’s hard to co-opt, because it’s non-party, it’s not for sale to the other candidates. Of course, it does have this huge cleavage between rich, privately educated students who are tendentially politically conservative, more likely to favor the PRI or PAN, and the politically more radical, working class, lower middle class, and middle class students in public universities. So there are major social and political divides within the movement that the forces of reaction are going to work hard on to divide the movement in these upcoming weeks. The same happened in Egypt—there were obvious divisions between the Muslim Brotherhood and the left—but the movement held together. So, let’s hope that the movement holds together from the attacks of the forces of reaction from both the right and the institutional left. … This is Part 1 of 2 of an interview with Patrick Cuninghame (Professor at UAM Xochimilco (the Metropolitan Autonomous University); participant in the EZLN’s Other Campaign), conducted on May 28th, 2012. We’ll post Part 2 of the interview soon. [i] For more on this atrocity, see the Amnesty International report, “Mexico: Torture and sexual violence against women detained in San Salvador Atenco – Two years of injustice and impunity” Share this: Facebook243 Twitter29 Tumblr More Like this: Like One blogger likes this. « Teaching Radical: Subverting Top-down Normalities in the ClassroomMapping Shared Imaginaries for Anti-capitalist Movements: an Interview with Tim Stallmann of the Counter-Cartographies Collective » DISCUSSION 20 Responses to “YoSoy132: Student-led Uprising in Mexico – An interview with Patrick Cuninghame (Professor, Mexico City)” I want to clarify that I dont think the Other Campaign “have jumped on the bandwagon” of the YoSoy132 students movement, as far as I can see having checked out their website and facebook page they have not taken an official position on the 132, but there seems to be general support for it judging by the comments on the Otra Campaña en DF (Mexico CIty) page. So that answer came out wrong, my apologies! Patrick Cuninghame POSTED BY PATRICK CUNINGHAME | JUNE 14, 2012, 1:50 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT After the massive demonstations all over Mexico last weekend by the YoSoy132 students and citizens movement, the growing number of clashes with PRI fascist gangs while the cops look on or join in on the side of the PRI against a non-violent movement, and now even school children setting up their own movement called YoSoy133, I think we can now talk about the Mexican Spring without any exageration. It seems this movement is seeking a lot more than clean elections and an unbiased media! POSTED BY PATRICK CUNINGHAME | JUNE 14, 2012, 1:58 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT No olvidan de poner el Cuadrado rojo ! POSTED BY THOMAS | JUNE 14, 2012, 12:58 PM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT This view of the mexican social movement is very interesting. It is very complete and very rigurousus. I´m not agree with the author when he carecterices López Obrador as “neoliberal progressist”. I think that the candidate is more keynesian than neoliberal. Inside the keynesianism exist differents political ways, differents theoretical approachs, and I think that López Obrador is a “keynesian conservative”, because he is againts the neoliberal policies (privatizations, desregulation), and hi is in favor of fiscal policies tipically keynesians, expansives particularly in social expensive, for public and free education and things like that. But is conservative because he doesn´t put in question the autonomy of the central bank, and for that, the goverment that he could represent wouldn´t have the control of monetary policy. Other central thing is that Patrick doesn´t make a comparations between #yotambiénsoy132 and the spanish social movement 15-M. For me there are more coincidences between this two social movements than any other, because the two social movements was inesperated, in a electoral context, and with a discurse non-partidist, reivindicative of the horizontal political practices (leaderless) and with strategies non-violents. The social compositions of the two social movements are a kind of “popular front” (a kind of union between progresist sectors of the petit bourgeosie, the working class and the intelectuals). I don´t see very active here the peasents, but really don´t know… Solidarity greetings Josafat POSTED BY JOSAFAT HERNÁNDEZ | JUNE 15, 2012, 4:58 PM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT Professor Cunninghame, These remarks are very accurate and depict the true reality happening in Mexico. As a neoiberal scholar I would argue your causation arguments for the status quo in Mexico are flawed. I do not agree neo liberalism is the root cause for all these upheavals. Either way we both ascribe to different schools of thought but still agree that Pena Nieto will DESTROY Mexico and take us back to Salinismo. Instead of denouncing the system as a whole I would like to listen to alternate proposes or reforms that should take place in order to mitigate this reality. I am tired of all those so called socialist types ( the occupy movement) being a prime example that just denounce but do not propose any solutions. Also with regards to your opinion of Carlos Salinas:” the real president of Mexico: Salinas (not to mention Obama). Salinas is a drug traffiker as well, a real mafioso. His brother Raul went to prison for several years for his drug traffiking and for the assassination of Luis Colosio, the PRI’s maverick presidential candidate in 1994. ” I dont understand the Obama reference ( since when is Barrack Obama president of Mexico) Also can you provide me with proof that Salinas was behind the Colosio murder? I am sure you understand as an Academic that Academia is not pure denunciation but providing proof and evidence of one’s thesis and theories. James Benson POSTED BY JAMES | JUNE 16, 2012, 12:56 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT Here’s a Spanish translation of the Adbusters reblog of Patrick’s YoSoy132 interview: “Traducción para hispanohablantes: ¿Primavera Mexicana? Un movimiento estudiantil está logrando lo imposible. Un emocionante movimiento dirigido por estudiantes para una democracia real ha emergido en México. Moviéndose más allá de las tradicionales protestas estudiantiles que se enfocan primariamente en oponerse a las alzas en colegiaturas, los estudiantes mexicanos en vez de eso están corriendo tras la demanda de que los medios de comunicación masivos sean democratizados y descorporizados. Su meta es golpear uno de los pilares principales, la televisión corporativa, que apoya a la clase política corrupta. Su acercamiento sofisticado está apuntando a un despertar popular y, como (el movimiento) Ocupa Wall Street, tomando a la vieja izquierda por sorpresa. Si la Primavera Árabe enseñó nuestro movimiento global sobre un cambio de régimen, entonces la Primavera Mexicana puede enseñarnos a nosotros la lección crucial en alcanzar una democracia en los medios. Una entrevista con Patrick Cuninghame, activista y profesor de la UAM Xochimilco, ofrece una emocionante fotografía de lo que está pasando: “Es realmente emocionante… No me había sentido aspi por años… Más allá del desamparo ha venido la esperanza… Ocupa Wall street ha introducido este término de la Primavera Mexicana, pero yo creo que es muy pronto para hablar sobre una Primavera Mexicana. Obviamente el movimiento aquí no es todavía tan radical o tan importante como la Primavera Árabe, especialmente la que ocurrió en Túnez y Egipto. No podemos hablar sobre cambio de régimen aún. Pero, si ocurriera lo imposible, y derrotamos al PRI y sus intentos de hacer un fraude electoral… Estamos frente a una situación completamente nueva… Las demandas principales del movimiento siguen siendo la democratización de los medios de comunicación. Pero si tuviéramos realmente unos medios democráticos en México, eso sería increíble. Si se democratizaran los medios en cualquier parte, ¡eso sería increíble! Claro que hay cierta medida de ingenuidad pensar que los medios Mexicanos – que están completamente bajo el control de la peor clase de neoliberalismo y de la madfia de los cárteles de la droga- súbitamente van a ser más democráticos; eso simplemente no ocurrirá. No ha pasado en los Estados Unidos o en Inglaterra o en cualquier otra llamada democracia. Los medios no son libres ni neutrales en ningún país del mundo, especialmente no lo son durante las elecciones. Es una demanda ingenua, pero de algunas formas ha abierto completamente la elección al exponer la dependencia de la clase política, particularmente la de su candidato Peña Nieto, en la manipulación masiva por los medios de comunicación. Yo diría que así como están las cosas en este momento, Peña Nieto está en problemas. A donde sea que va hay miles de personas oponiéndosele, cantando frases contra el, con pancartas, etc. Una semana atrás, el PRI respondió de la forma que siempre lo hacen: con violencia. Ellos enviaron a sus porros para atacar estudiantes que se oponen a cualquier reunión de Peña Nieto. Ahora, eso se les revirtió contra ellos… Yo creo que este movimiento nació en medio de una realmente monótona campaña de elección que parecía dominada por un candidato corrupto, fascista, y ellos lo han mostrado con toda claridad…”" – JoshColunga http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/mexican-spring.html#comment-49584 POSTED BY NOOUTSIDE | JUNE 17, 2012, 2:37 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT Here’s an interesting comment on the Adbusters reblog of this: “tHIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY MOVEMENT! I have never seen a movement grow so rapidly, it went national within days, which is rare in Mexico. The Zapatistas have struggled since 1994 to create a national movement since they set up the FZLN in 1997 and then the Other Campaign in 2005 and still it didnt really take off… But the 132 took off almost immediately. Of course it’s far more broad-based, the youth of Mexico! It has terrible internal contradictions and splits within it and who knows if it will survive the July 1st elections. At the moment it is “everyone united against Peña Nieto and Televisa”, including anti-peña nietistas in the PRI itself. On July 2nd we will be in a completely diffeerent scenario: either the PRI and fascism will have returned and the repression (already started) will be intense or we will have the rightist social democrat Lopez Obrador who will attempt (and fail) to co-opt and demobilize the movement…and then repress it no doubt too. But the movement is generating alternative organizational structures to resist just that and is spreading to just about every social sector in the country, school children included. The real question is: is the 132 still a students movement? or has it already outgrown that sector? Everyday there are are major marches, general assemblies, local assemblies, pickets etc, it is getting harder and harder to keep pace with it! I advise anyone interested to get down here ASAP and help this movement to radicalize and build links with OWS, the Montreal students movement and the global anti-capitalist movement of movements.” – Anonymous POSTED BY NOOUTSIDE | JUNE 17, 2012, 2:39 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT Articles in English by Adam Morton about YoSoy132, Latin America etc http://adamdavidmorton.com/2012/06/transcend-the-electoral-conjuncture/ POSTED BY PATRICK | JUNE 20, 2012, 3:52 PM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT http://www.facebook.com/pcuninghame/posts/318318774924003?notif_t=like POSTED BY PATRICK CUNINGHAME | JUNE 29, 2012, 1:33 AM REPLY TO THIS COMMENT Trackbacks/Pingbacks PINGBACK: PATRICK CUNINGHAME ON MEXICO’S YO SOY 132 STUDENT MOVEMENT | CHTODELAT NEWS - JUNE 13, 2012 PINGBACK: YOSOY132: STUDENT-LED UPRISING IN MEXICO – AN INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK CUNINGHAME (PROFESSOR, MEXICO CITY) [REPOSTED FROM CLASS WAR U]] « FREE UNIVERSE-ITY - JUNE 16, 2012 PINGBACK: MEXICAN SPRING? A STUDENT-LED MOVEMENT IS ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE » PHILOSOPHERS STONE | PHILOSOPHERS STONE - JUNE 18, 2012 PINGBACK: “BUT IF WE REALLY HAD A DEMOCRATIZED MEDIA IN MEXICO, THAT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE. IF YOU DEMOCRATIZED THE MEDIA ANYWHERE, THAT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE! “ | OCCUPY KC JOURNAL BLOG - JUNE 18, 2012 PINGBACK: MEXICAN SPRING? A STUDENT-LED MOVEMENT IS ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE. - JUNE 19, 2012 PINGBACK: TURN OFF THE TV, TURN ON THE TRUTH – FOR THE DESK DRAWER - JUNE 20, 2012 PINGBACK: INTERNATIONAL NEWLETTER #22J #OCCUPYNEWSLETTER | TAKE THE SQUARE - JUNE 22, 2012 PINGBACK: MEXICAN SPRING? - JUNE 22, 2012 PINGBACK: WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH YOSOY132? | PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLIES NETWORK - JUNE 24, 2012 PINGBACK: YOSOY132: STUDENT-LED UPRISING IN MEXICO - JUNE 25, 2012 PINGBACK: HOMEPAGE - JUNE 25, 2012http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2012/07/yosoy132-student-led-uprising-in-mexico.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370834338342950357.post-1057718553783326732Mon, 04 May 2009 05:39:00 +00002009-05-03T23:43:14.150-07:00ironyItalian 1977 Movementlanguagetransversalism‘‘A Laughter That Will Bury You All’’: Irony as Protest and Language as Struggle in the Italian 1977 Movement1By Patrick Gun Cuninghame<br /><br /><strong>Summary: </strong><br /><strong>Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the Italian ‘‘1977 Movement’’ in<br />its conflict with the grey, humourless political system was its use of irony to ridicule<br />its opponents. Irony was central to the identity of the movement and its cultural and<br />political break with the institutional old and vanguardist new lefts. Its use,<br />particularly by the ‘‘Metropolitan Indians’’, the transversalists and other ‘‘creatives’’,<br />marked a social revolt by mainly marginalized young people, who invented a new<br />political counter-culture based on linguistic experimentation in circumstances far<br />from the optimism of 1968. The paper, based directly on primary sources from the<br />movement and on interviews with former participants, reassesses a movement<br />usually characterized as ‘‘violent’’ by Italianist social history. It concludes that the<br />movement’s ‘‘ironic praxis’’ contributed to a fundamental change in Italian society<br />in the late seventies and has influenced the political style of contemporary<br />alterglobalist and anti-capitalist movements.</strong><br /><br /><em>‘‘The revolution is over. We have won.’’ (Zut/A/traverso, Bologna, June<br />1977)<span style="font-size:85%;">2<br /></span></em><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"> This article was first published in the International Review of Social History [quarterly of the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis/International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Holland], No. 52, 2007, pp. 153–168. It is based on a paper, ‘‘The End of Politics: The 1977 Movement in Italy’’, presented<br />at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, London, in November<br />1997; and also on ch. 6, ‘‘Youth Counter-Cultures and Antagonist Communication: ‘Creative<br />Autonomia’ and the 1977 Movement’’, of my unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Autonomia: Movement<br />of Refusal: Social Movements and Conflict in Italy in the 1970s (Middlesex University, 2002). I<br />am indebted to Enrico Palandri and Ferruccio Gambino for sharing their experiences with me<br />and for providing valuable insights through in-depth interviews. I thank Franco Berardi, Bob<br />Lumley, Nick Dyer-Witheford, and Autonomedia for providing permission to quote. The<br />illustrations used are taken from web sites that do not claim copyright. I also thank Laura<br />Corradi, Gavin Grindon, Alejandro Suero and Steve Wright for their comments, corrections and<br />additional sources. Finally, all translations of quotations from Italian and Spanish texts are mine,<br />as are any errors.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">1. Circoli proletari giovanili di Milano (eds) Sara´ un risotto che vi seppellira´ (Milan, 1977). Title<br />of collected ephemera of Proletarian Youth Circles movement and a word play on the old<br />anarchist slogan, converted into ‘‘It will be a risotto that will bury you all’’.<br />2. ‘‘La rivoluzione e` finita, abbiamo vinto’’, ironic headline in one of the main newspapers of the<br />‘‘creative’’ wing of the Seventy-Seven Movement; quoted in Francesco Berardi, Dell’Innocenza.<br />1977: l’anno della premonizione (Verona, 1997), p. 50.<br /></span><br />INTRODUCTION<br /><br />The 1977 Movement (known as settantasette – ‘‘Seventy-Seven’’ – in Italy)<br />marked the end of Italy’s ‘‘long sixty-eight’’, which had lasted for a decade,<br />as compared to a few weeks in France and elsewhere. While the<br />iconoclastic punk movement screamed ‘‘No future’’ in Britain, perhaps<br />the main weapon of the revolt of ‘‘Year Nine’’<span style="font-size:85%;">3</span> against the austere,<br />humourless, bureaucratic authoritarianism of the Italian Communist Party<br />(ICP), and its ‘‘Historical Compromise’’<span style="font-size:85%;">4 </span>with the corrupt Christian<br />Democrat regime, was its caustic irony and satirical wit. This was<br />particularly the case with the ‘‘Metropolitan Indians’’ (indiani metropolitani):<br />largely non-violent demonstrators who used face paint and<br />headdresses to signify their break from the ‘‘seriousness’’ of politics and<br />emphasize the theatrical and ludic aspects of protest.<br />This article aims to outline the rationale behind the ‘‘creative’’ wing of<br />Seventy-Seven and its ‘‘scream’’ against official politics of whatever hue<br />and anything within the Left, both Old and New, that smacked of<br />dullness, self-importance, dogmatism and hypocrisy. It will show how<br />humour in its historically most political form, irony, was central to the<br />identity of the movement and its fundamental cultural, as much as<br />political, break with both the institutional Old Left (ICP and Socialist<br />Party) and the vanguardist New Left of 1968 origin.<br />This was the linguistic, artistic, cultural and, ultimately, despite its ‘‘antipolitical’’<br />ethos, political revolution of the ‘‘Second Society’’<span style="font-size:85%;">5</span>: students,<br />unemployed youth, precarious workers, and other ‘‘marginals’’ excluded<br />from the twilight of the Keynesian-Fordist pact and forced to reinvent a<br />new political praxis in very different circumstances from the optimism of<br />1968. Often wittily ironic, sometimes aggressively sarcastic, always<br />disparaging, Seventy-Seven’s use of creative humour also had devastating<br />political consequences. Such was the case of the expulsion of Luciano<br />Lama, an ICP leader and head of the CGIL<span style="font-size:85%;">6</span> trade unions, who along with<br />his bodyguards and several hundred press-ganged trade unionists, was<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">3. In Sette anni di desiderio: cronache 1977–1983 (Milan, 1985 [1983]), Umberto Eco gives this<br />name to the 1977 Movement. ‘‘Year One’’ was 1968, the historical break between the Old and<br />New Lefts.<br />4. Following the 1973 coup d’e´tat in Chile, the ICP’s leadership concluded that the<br />parliamentary road to socialism was closed. Enrico Berlinguer, the ICP’s party secretary,<br />devised the Historic Compromise strategy to increase electoral support among the middle<br />classes. The severe crisis of the seventies caused the Christian Democrats and ICP to agree on the<br />need to restabilize the Italian state and organize social consensus for economic austerity<br />measures.<br />5. A theory outlined by Alberto Asor Rosa in Le due societa´ (Turin, 1977). See section on ‘‘Two<br />Societies’’ for further analysis.<br />6. Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (Italian General Confederation of Labour), the<br />largest of the three union confederations and close to the ICP and the Italian Socialist Party.<br /></span><br />unceremoniously driven out of Rome University, after attempting forcibly<br />to end an occupation: an historical turning point that marked the definitive<br />end of the ICP and the New Left’s mutual tolerance and the rupture of any<br />possible ‘‘Left unity’’ in that country.<span style="font-size:85%;">7<br /></span><br />This article will examine the how and why behind an extraordinary<br />panoply of slogans, graffiti, chants, zines, happenings, street theatre, and<br />free radio stations. Bologna’s ‘‘creative Autonomia’’ [Autonomy] also<br />produced ‘‘Mao-Dadism’’, the melding of the Maoism of the Cultural<br />Revolution with the Dadaism of interwar artistic nihilism. Another<br />current was ‘‘transversalism’’: the attempt by the A/Traverso magazine<br />collective to deconstruct autonomia,<span style="font-size:85%;">8</span> operaismo (workerism),<span style="font-size:85%;">9</span> and the<br />Left in general. While Mao-Dadaism and transversalism took themselves<br />more seriously, they shared with the Metropolitan Indians’ ironic slogans<br />the same subversive intent to ‘‘turn the world upside down’’ by playfully<br />undermining the linguistic and cultural norms of both capitalism and<br />socialism. The article concludes by tracing links between Seventy-Seven’s<br />celebration of humour as political event and the sometimes theatrical<br />praxis of contemporary alter-globalist and anti-capitalist movements.<br /><br />‘‘A STRANGE MOVEMENT OF STRANGE STUDENTS’’<span style="font-size:85%;">10</span><br /><br />The mass movement that emerged in Rome and Bologna, in particular, in<br />February–April 1977 was categorized by the ICP intellectual and<br />moderate workerist, Asor Rosa, as the ‘‘Second Society’’: a nomadic<br />amalgam of university and secondary school students, unemployed and<br />counter-cultural youth, feminists, homosexuals, artists, and unaffiliated<br />ex-New Left activists known as cani sciolti (stray dogs), plus autonomia<br />and the remnants of the New Left parties<span style="font-size:85%;">11</span>. The countercultural<br />and anti-political components that had been prominent in the 1968<br />movements returned to the fore to challenge the neo-Leninist and<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">7. I thank Alejandro Suero for sharing with me his idea that such events are more important in<br />‘‘epoch-making’’ than repression, the latter usually taken as marking the end of a cycle of social<br />movement mobilization and therefore of a specific epoch.<br />8. A social movement produced by the disintegration of the New Left groups in the mid-1970s<br />and a general disaffection among young activists with the party form. See Steve Wright, Storming<br />Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism (London, 2002) and my<br />unpublished Ph.D. thesis.<br />9. Italian operaismo was born in the late 1950s and emphasized workers’ autonomous selforganization,<br />while criticizing trade-union-based ‘‘workerism’’. For a definitive history of<br />operaismo, see Wright, Storming Heaven.<br />10. L. Manconi and M. Sinibaldi, ‘‘Uno strano movimento di strani studenti’’, Ombre Rosse, 20<br />(1977), pp. 28–n/a.<br />11. Lotta Continua [Continuous Struggle], Avanguardia Operaia [Workers’ Vanguard], Il<br />Manifesto (now a national daily newspaper), Potere Operaio [Workers’ Power] plus a galaxy of<br />smaller groups.<br /></span><br />workerist premises of organized Autonomia through the ironic communicative<br />action of the Metropolitan Indians and the linguistic transversalism<br />of ‘‘creative autonomia’’.<br /><br />However, unlike 1968, there was no workers’ movement in tandem or<br />potential allies in the institutional Left. Its ‘‘Historic Compromise’’ with<br />the Christian Democrats had led the ICP from a position of relative<br />neutrality in 1968 to open hostility towards the more radical 1977<br />Movement. The movement perceived the ICP’s leaders as even more rigid<br />than the political Right in their insistence on austerity and repressive<br />measures to pacify the severe crisis of the mid-1970s, including the highly<br />unpopular plans to restructure the universities which sparked off Seventy-<br />Seven. Despite its social-democratic shift towards Eurocommunism, the<br />ICP retained its ‘‘Stalinist soul’’, took a conservative stance on the divorce<br />and abortion referendums and seemed unable to appreciate the significance<br />of the new social movements.<span style="font-size:85%;">12</span> The rupture with the party system was<br />complete and only one side could emerge intact from such an uncompro-<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">12. Antonio Negri, ‘‘Between ‘Historic Compromise’ and Terrorism: Reviewing the Experience<br />of Italy in the 1970s’’, Le Monde Diplomatique (English edn, trans. Ed Emery), September<br />(1998); http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/1998/09/11negri, (accessed April 2001).<br /></span><br />mising confrontation, as Ferruccio Gambino, a sociologist and former<br />Potere Operaio (Workers’ Power)<span style="font-size:85%;">13</span> militant, states:<br /><br /><em>Basically they were strangers in their own land. When they turned their heads it<br />was not like in Corso Traiano [major riot in a working-class district of Turin] in<br />1969, when there were 5,000 workers behind the students. This time there were<br />no workers. That makes a difference and I think they paid very dearly for that. It<br />was a much more difficult situation than in 1969.<span style="font-size:85%;">14<br /></span></em><br />Whereas 1968 saw an explosion of antagonist movements, behaviours,<br />and mentalities that spread throughout Italian, and indeed global society,<br />synchronizing with a profound process of social, economic, and cultural<br />crisis and change, 1977, as the culmination of that process, represented its<br />implosion and dispersion throughout society in an individualized rather<br />than collective form. The outburst of political, social, and cultural<br />innovation and creativity represented by Seventy-Seven ultimately fell<br />into a void of repression and terrorism, its actors unable to maintain the<br />tremendous momentum of February and March. Autonomia, as a post-<br />New Left mass entity, was the only overtly political movement in Seventy-<br />Seven. However, organized autonomia’s attempts to hegemonize the<br />movement and to ‘‘raise the level of conflict’’ with the state caused a<br />permanent internal dispute, whose divisive effects contributed to the<br />movement’s crisis and premature demise. Revisionist post-Marxist sociological<br />accounts have emphasized Seventy-Seven’s violent, self-destructive<br />tendencies, while minimizing its creative, humorous characteristics<span style="font-size:85%;">15</span>.<br />Sympathetic radical, Marxist, and autonomist accounts have stressed its<br />innovatory contribution to the evolution of contemporary Italian,<br />European, and now global social movements, given the strong Italian<br />influence within alterglobalism.<span style="font-size:85%;">16</span><br /><br />RUPTURE WITH THE ICP<br /><br />However, the most important difference between the movements of 1968<br />and 1977 was without doubt the very different relations between the social<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">13. An operaismo-influenced group which pushed for the alliance between the libertarian 1968<br />students’ movement and the autonomous workers movement of the 1969 ‘‘Hot Autumn’’ strikewave.<br />Many of its militants and intellectuals later became involved in autonomia and Seventy-<br />Seven.<br />14. Interview with Ferruccio Gambino, June 1999 (Padua).<br />15. Donatella Della Porta, Movimenti collettivi e sistema politico in Italia 1960–1995 (Rome,<br />1996); Robert Lumley, States of Emergency: Cultures of Revolt in Italy from 1968 to 1978<br />(London, 1990); Alberto Melucci, Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age<br />(Cambridge, 1996).<br />16. Berardi, Dell’innocenza; Marco Grispigni, Il Settantasette: Un manuale per capire, un saggio<br />per riflettere (Milan, 1997); George Katsiaficas The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous<br />Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life (Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1997).<br /></span><br />movements and their historical mediator with the state, the ICP, which<br />had been the main beneficiary, in terms of votes, from the upsurge of the<br />social movements after 1968, almost overtaking the Christian Democrats<br />in the 1976 national elections. It was not hard to predict the conflict<br />between Seventy-Seven and the ICP, but its ferocity, particularly the<br />incident with Lama, the CGIL leader, at Rome University on 17 February<br />took most by surprise.<br /><br />The movement exploded exactly in those parts of the social terrain<br />considered to be securely occupied by the ICP, namely the universities and<br />‘‘Red Bologna’’, the capital of Emilia-Romagna, the main region of the<br />‘‘Red Belt’’ of northern central Italy and the ICP’s showpiece for its local<br />government strategy of cooperation with the small and medium scale<br />industry of the so-called ‘‘Third Italy’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">17</span> A generally contemptuous<br />attitude led to the disastrous miscalculations that brought about Lama’s<br />misconceived attempt forcibly to ‘‘normalize’’ the university and end the<br />occupation. His accompanying group of about 300 ICP and<br />CGIL militants was too small and divided. Many factory workers left as<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">17. So termed to contrast it with the historical divide between the ‘‘two Italies’’ of the developed,<br />industrialized north and the underdeveloped, agricultural south.</span><br /><br />soon as they realized they were not confronting ‘‘fascists’’ as they had<br />previously been informed.<br /><br />The Metropolitan Indians drowned out Lama’s harangue with their<br />mocking chants, provoking a violent reaction:<br /><br /><em>In the large open area of the campus where he was to speak, Lama found another<br />platform already rigged up, with a dummy of himself on it (complete with his<br />famous pipe). There was a big red cutout of a Valentine’s heart, with a slogan<br />punning his name – ‘‘Nessuno L’Ama’’ [Lama Nobody [:::] or Nobody Loves<br />Him]. Around this platform there was a band of Metropolitan Indians.<br />As Lama started to speak, they began to chant ‘‘Sacrifices, Sacrifices, We Want<br />Sacrifices!’’ (a parody of the State’s economic policy upheld by the Communist<br />Party). ‘‘Build us More Churches and Fewer Houses!’’ (Italy has more churches<br />than any other European country, and a chronic housing shortage). ‘‘We demand<br />to work harder and earn less!’’ [:::]. The irony aggravated the humourless<br />heavies.<span style="font-size:85%;">18</span></em><br /><br />Then came the more violent anger of the autonomi who responded with a<br />hail of stones to the aggression of Lama’s minders who had attacked the<br />Metropolitan Indians with fire extinguishers. Lama and his entourage were<br />pushed out of the campus and the truck with his loudspeaker system was<br />smashed up. Both sides taunted each other with shouts of ‘‘fascists’’, a<br />deadly insult for an Italian leftist. Others broke down and wept,<br />overwhelmed by the historic significance of the moment: the Rubicon<br />had been crossed and the Italian Left was now irredeemably split. The<br />damage done was irreversible and the split between the ICP and the<br />movement had become an unbridgeable abyss, locking both into an<br />increasingly bitter confrontation, particularly after Renato Zangheri, the<br />ICP mayor of Bologna, defended the killing of a student activist by riot<br />police on 11 March.<br /><br />THE ‘‘TWO SOCIETIES’’<br /><br />The shock of Lama’s humiliating expulsion forced the ICP’s intellectuals<br />to analyse seriously a movement that until then they had only derided or<br />ignored. The counter-attack was led by the ICP’s Asor Rosa in a series of<br />articles in <em>L ‘Unita´</em> ,<span style="font-size:85%;">19 </span>in which he outlined his theory of the ‘‘two<br />societies’’: a ‘‘first society’’ composed of ‘‘guaranteed’’ social strata,<br />attached to the unions and political parties, whose interests were considered<br />to be synonymous with those of the Historic Compromise; and a<br />‘‘second society’’ composed of ‘‘non-guaranteed’’ marginalized social<br />subjects, particularly the young unemployed and underemployed trapped<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">18. Anon., ‘‘Lama Sabachthani’’, in Italy: Autonomia. Post-Political Politics (New York, 1980),<br />pp. 100–101, 101.<br />19. The ICP’s national daily newspaper.<br /></span><br />in unregulated black-market jobs, with whom an institutional dialogue<br />over the ‘‘politics of austerity’’ implemented since 1973 to help the<br />economy out of its worst postwar crisis was necessary if all but impossible.<br /><br />The interests of the ‘‘first society’’ were represented by the national party<br />system and the unions, while the irreducibly marginalized ‘‘second<br />society’’ self-organized locally in autonomous antagonist movements.<br />This was also due to the failure of the historical workers’ organizations to<br />represent the non-guaranteed sectors, particularly youth, who were<br />unprotected by labour laws and exploited in the growing sector of black<br />market sweatshops.<br /><br />Asor Rosa’s theory was the first recognition of the movement’s social<br />complexity and cultural novelty. It recognized the limits of a social<br />democratic strategy of ‘‘normalization’’, differing from the conspiracytheory-<br />type analysis which typified the ICP’s attempt to understand those<br />movements, armed or otherwise, to its left. However, his theory remained<br />flawed, contradictorily accusing the movement of being both ‘‘hedonistically<br />apolitical’’ and ‘‘politically anti-communist’’. It expressed no<br />appreciation of the movement’s attack on politics itself, one of its most<br />novel characteristics, nor of the impending crisis in the Fordist productive<br />model, based on the ‘‘pact between producers’’. The ‘‘first society’’, in fact,<br />was also destined for defeat and the erosion and removal of its guarantees<br />in the aftermath of the collapse of the 1980 FIAT strike. Asor Rosa<br />attempted to make the new conflicts conform to an older model based on<br />historical class divisions; a frequent mistake in Marxist analyses of new<br />social movements.<br /><br />METROPOLITAN INDIANS<br /><br />Seventy-Seven surprised the New as much as the Old Left with its break<br />with the generation and politics of 1968, as the punks did with hippie<br />values in Britain. They mocked the ageing ‘‘sixty-eighters’’ almost as<br />harshly as the Old Left bureaucrats, calling them ‘‘zombies’’. The countercultural<br />youth who had been on the fringes of the 1968–1973 protest cycle<br />became central to the new cycle of the mid to late nineteen seventies.<br />However in Italy, as opposed to the UK punk scene, there was an unlikely<br />mixing of Marx and the metropolitan underground:<br /><br /><em>They tended to coalesce [:::] for some periods [but] they were also separated. I<br />belonged to an area where they touched each other. I wasneither a pure hippy<br />nor a pure Marxist. We were in between. [:::] On the other hand, there was Re<br />Nudo [underground magazine] and others who wouldn’t want to hear about<br />politics [:::]. I wasn’t ever in [RN], they were a bit too hippyish for my liking [:::]<br />for instance, I obviously did take drugs [:::] but I never thought that would make<br />an alterative world, whereas [RN] was very much into changing your diet [:::]. It<br />was almost a religious order [:::].<span style="font-size:85%;">20</span></em><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">20. Interview with Enrico Palandri, June 1999 (London).</span><br /><br />The self-description of ‘‘autonomy’’ was adopted as a blanket term to<br />cover the ‘‘new politics’’, both ‘‘creative’’ and ‘‘organized’’. In Italy, youth<br />subculture was linked to the political subculture of autonomia, ‘‘alternative’’<br />practices being politicized and made oppositional. Between 1975<br />and 1979 urban youth entered the political scene as the protagonist in new<br />forms of urban conflict, its identity having been transformed by the<br />student-worker politics of 1968–1973. This identity was not perceived<br />exclusively in terms of youth experience, but more of the situation of the<br />modern metropolis. Thus, youth became coterminous with exclusion,<br />marginality, and deviance, and was treated by sociologists (except for<br />Alberto Melucci) and institutions alike as a ‘‘social problem’’. This false<br />image was appropriated and parodied by the Metropolitan Indians who<br />mocked ‘‘Western civilization’’ and its values, seeing unemployment as an<br />opportunity for self-development rather than a personal crisis or social<br />problem.<span style="font-size:85%;">21<br /></span><br />The Metropolitan Indians were the most visible counter-cultural force<br />within Seventy-Seven. In Milan they emerged from a mixing of the<br />experience of the Proletarian Youth Clubs (PYC) with ‘‘Mao-Dadaism’’,<br />the ‘‘drug culture’’, group sex and ‘‘transversalist’’ linguistic experimentation,<br />particularly the use of sarcastic and ironic slogans to ridicule all forms<br />of organized politics, including organized autonomia. Mao-Dadism<br />defined itself as a hybrid by-product of both the Chinese Cultural<br />Revolution, when ‘‘art [:::] became daily life’’, and the Dadaist rejection of<br />‘‘the separation between art and daily life’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">22</span> This turn to Dada by<br />‘‘creative autonomia’’ and its historical link to the surrealist/situationist<br />project need to be reconsidered, in the sense that it was the surrealists,<br />rather than the Dadaists, who rejected the separation between art and daily<br />life. Their consideration of ‘‘the surreal’’ as a revolutionary project led<br />them to communism in the 1930s, while the Dadaists tended to remain<br />aloof from organized politics. This surrealist project, which continued<br />with the situationists, then had Dada superimposed back onto it in the late<br />1960s by various European counter-cultural groups. They linked Dada to<br />anarchism and adopted irony, play and theatricality ‘‘as political values,<br />and as a new way of making autonomous space. [This] was articulated by<br />these groups [:::] by using the language of Dada.’’<span style="font-size:85%;">23</span> Thus Mao-Dadism was<br />part of a general European counter-cultural reinvention of Dadaism in the<br />1960s and 1970s.<br /><br />The Metropolitan Indians’s main contribution to Seventy-Seven was<br />the combination of linguistic experimentation and Situationist<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">21. Lumley, States of Emergency.<br />22. R. Scordino and DeriveApprodi (eds), ‘77: L’anno della grande rivolta (Rome, 1997, CD),<br />no page numbers.<br />23. Gavin Grindon, e-mail, 19 December 2006. I thank Gavin for this and other insights on the<br />relation between Dadaism and counter-cultural movements in contemporary European history.<br /></span><br /><em>detournement</em> <span style="font-size:85%;">24</span> in its leaflets, demonstration slogans, and police-taunting<br />gestures. They used mocking humour and what the semiologist<br />Umberto Eco called ‘‘Italo-indian’’<span style="font-size:85%;">25</span> to attack total institutions and the<br />patriarchal family. As part of the ‘‘meeting of the People of Men’’ they<br />proposed ‘‘the immediate practice at the territorial level of militant<br />antifamily patrols to tear away young men and especially young women<br />from patriarchal tyranny’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">26</span> They made surrealistic demands which<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">24. ‘‘[A] term deriving from the Situationists [which] describes the reassemblage of elements<br />torn out of their original context in order to make a subversive political statement’’; Nick Dyer-<br />Witheford, Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism<br />(Urbana, IL, 1999), n. 60, p.187. The Situationist International was a neo-Marxist movement<br />which emerged from the post-surrealist milieu and was a key influence on the French May 1968<br />revolts with its analysis of advanced capitalism as a ‘‘society of spectacle’’ based on consumerism<br />and the mass media.<br />25. ‘‘C’e´ un altra lingua, l’italo-indiano’’, L’Espresso, no. 14, (1977); republished in Umberto<br />Eco, Sette anni di desiderio (Milan, 1983), and in Nanni Balestrini and Primo Moroni, L’orda<br />d’oro: 1968–1977. La grande ondata rivoluzionaria e creativa, politica ed esistenziale (Milan,<br />1997 [1988]); trans. Micaela Bogazzi and republ. as ‘‘Hay otro idioma, el italo-indiano’’, in<br />Balestrini and Moroni, La horda de oro (1968–1977). La gran ola revolucionaria y creativa,<br />polı´tica y existencial (Madrid, 2006), pp. 610–614.<br />26. Anon., ‘‘Gli indiani metropolitani’’, 3 March 1977 (leaflet); 68–77 gruppi e movimenti si<br />raccontano, http://www.zzz.it/ago/settesette/volantinill–2Q.htm, (accessed April 2001).<br /></span><br />parodied the political practice of ‘‘demanding’’, asking for the<br /><br /><em>‘‘demolition of the Patriotic Altar,<span style="font-size:85%;">27</span> and its substitution with all forms of vegetation<br />[and] animals [:::] and the alternative use of Hercules aircraft as a service to<br />transport young people for free to Machu Pichu (Peru) for the sun party’’</em>.<span style="font-size:85%;">28<br /></span><br />However, not all of ‘‘creative autonomia’’ agreed with their somewhat<br />ritualistic use of irony: ‘‘The game of reversal is impassioning the Rome<br />movement; once the trick is discovered the game is easy’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">29 </span>Even so, ‘‘the<br />trick is old, in France it has a precise linguistic expression – detournement<br />– and it has long been used by the exponents of the historical vanguard [:::]<br />precursors could be found among the great English writers of the<br />eighteenth century’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">30</span> Nevertheless, the power of irony as a linguistic<br />weapon was recognized, as were its limitations:<br /><br /><em>What interests us is the sense of bitterness that irony leaves us with, its flattening<br />action. Irony opens spaces, it unhinges, it reveals what cannot be hidden anymore<br />[:::]. Irony lacks flesh and blood, it is only partially a practice of liberation, as<br />partial as is violence and its organization.<span style="font-size:85%;">31<br /></span></em><br />Finally, irony is a frustrating ‘‘language that marks the space between our<br />desires and the difficulty of their realization’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">32<br /></span><br />The Metropolitan Indians also combined ironic wordplay with<br />theatricality on demonstrations as a self-deprecatory refusal of ‘‘serious<br />militancy’’, deliberately provoking the more earnest militants with their<br />‘‘effrontery of inventing and intoning slogans with a megaphone in the<br />middle of an assembly [:::] and hilarious routines such as marching in<br />indian file while intoning the word ‘Oask?!’ [the name of their zine, an<br />anagram of Kaos]’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">33 </span>Significantly, these bizarre slogans, were ‘‘quickly<br />assimilated by the whole Movement’’, demonstrating the power of irony<br />as a protest form throughout Seventy-Seven.34 The ‘‘Indians’’ proved,<br />however, to be more of an ephemeral moment than a lasting tendency,<br />dissolving back into the movement or simply leaving, after the intensification<br />of state repression following the insurrectionary violence of the 12<br />March demonstrations in Rome and Bologna. They ‘‘did not recognize<br />[themselves] in mass aggregations, [they] liked to invent language-<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">27. A large marble monument in central Rome, built during fascism, also known derisively as<br />the ‘‘typewriter’’ due to its unusual shape.<br />28. Anon., ‘‘Gli indiani metropolitani’’.<br />29. Anon., Zut, 1977; 68–77 gruppi e movimenti si raccontano, http://www.zzz.it/ago/<br />autonomia/ironia.htm, (accessed April 2001).<br />30. Ibid.<br />31. Ibid.<br />32. Anon., Historias Trastornadas, II, ‘‘Indiani Metropolitani’’, http://www.lisergia.net/interferencias/<br />purgantepublicitario/indiani.html, (accessed September 2006).<br />33. Ibid.<br />34. Ibid.<br /></span><br />behaviour and to look for another space in which to elaborate [their]<br />poetic of intervention. Already in OASK?! they had signed off as the<br />‘‘Metropolitan Indians in dis/aggregation’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">35<br /></span><br />RADIO ALICE AND ‘‘TRANSVERSALISM’’<br /><br />Transversalism, named after Bologna’s A/Traverso magazine, was another<br />example of the central role of language in the 1977 Movement. It attempted<br />to undermine language’s socially controlling norms through the use of<br />Lewis Carroll’s ‘‘non-sense’’ and other forms of ‘‘interruption’’ to create a<br />new kind of communication, more suited to the needs of the Seventy-<br />Seven generation. It influenced the explosion in the independent production<br />of leaflets, posters, bulletins, newspapers, journals and zines that was<br />Seventy-Seven’s most lasting material legacy, along with the chants,<br />slogans, and discussions in endless assemblies in schools, university<br />faculties, and ‘‘occupied social centres’’. Transversalism was theorized<br />within the major social themes but outside the constraints of worn-out<br />ideological categories, such as the ‘‘proletariat’’ and the ‘‘middle class’’. As<br />feminism had already done, it opposed every ideological system. The<br />‘‘everyday’’ was to be lived as a ‘‘revolutionary moment’’ in all its<br />components, necessitating the constant deployment of inventiveness and<br />creativity. Hence the ironic use of language, the ‘‘non-sense’’, the claims to<br />the right to travel for free (with counterfeited train tickets), the right to free<br />cinema, and the theory of technical-scientific intelligence that led to<br />strangely haphazard traffic lights and free international calls from<br />telephone booths.<span style="font-size:85%;">36<br /></span><br />The urban youth movement, like the women’s movement, had a wide<br />repertoire of resources and skills to mobilize. The mushrooming of ‘‘free<br />radio’’ stations (radio libere) in the main cities in the mid-1970s made them<br />the sounding board and cultural laboratory of the movements. Through<br />phone-ins, ordinary people’s rich store of experiences addressed the real<br />problems of everyday life that were ignored by the mainstream media. The<br />use of ‘‘non-sense’’, to go through the ‘‘looking glass’’ of reality, helped to<br />mirror the outside world. However, most radio stations closed down more<br />through lack of skills and funds than police action. There was a failure to<br />articulate and develop autonomous practices, although the present<br />extensive network of free radio stations is thriving, if in a less experimental<br />format.<span style="font-size:85%;">37<br /></span><br />Radio Alice was founded by former Potere Operaio militants and began<br />broadcasting in 1974 as the first ‘‘free radio station’’. It broke all the norms<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">35. Scordino and DeriveApprodi, ‘77.<br />36. Ibid.<br />37. Ibid.<br /></span><br />of communication, something never done before by the Italian Left. The<br />writer and academic Enrico Palandri, then a student militant and poet,<br />describes his involvement in the radio:<br /><br /><em>When I came to Bologna in 1975 very soon I began to work with Radio Alice. At<br />first I did a programme with some friends on poetry late at night. [:::] meeting<br />these people who were slightly older than us, who had been in the ‘68 movement<br />and had set up the radio. [:::] [During the rioting following the killing of a student<br />in March] there were a lot of phone-ins and we all listened. The police broke in<br />and closed the radio. This was reported live because the people in the radio were<br />very clever. They hid the microphones and left the lines open. After that there<br />were numerous arrests.<span style="font-size:85%;">38<br /></span></em><br />Seventy-Seven’s evident capacity for cultural innovation and experimentation<br />lay in its use of new languages and forms of antagonist<br />communication, the latter defined as the expression of real behaviours, not<br />abstract reflections to be proposed as a separate product from the<br />struggles. The free radio stations, most famously Radio Alice, and to a<br />lesser extent the more ‘‘political’’ Radio Sherwood in Padua and Radio<br />Onda Rossa in Rome, became the sites not just of a localized dissemination<br />of counter-information and subversive ideas, through the cronisti a gettone<br />(telephone kiosk reporters) and phone-ins, but also the locus for continual<br />linguistic experimentation through the use of transversalism, Mao-<br />Dadaism, non-sense and a mixture of false and real news under the slogan:<br />‘‘Let’s spread false news that produce real events’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">39</span> The most infamous<br />prank was the false edition of La Repubblica (a centre-left national daily<br />newspaper), produced by Il Male, a satirical magazine. Its front page<br />splash featured the improbable ‘‘arrest’’ of Ugo Tognazzi, a popular comic<br />actor, as the grande vecchio (godfather) behind the Red Brigades, so<br />ridiculing the press’s obsession with terrorist conspiracy theories.<br />The magazine A/traverso, linked to Radio Alice, first appeared in<br />Bologna in 1975 as a supplement to Rosso, then the main publication of<br />organized autonomia. However, the growing ideological divisions between<br />‘‘creative’’ and ‘‘organized’’ autonomia soon led to a parting of the<br />ways. It attempted to be an organ of continuous and open research on the<br />general problems of language, the private sphere, and of intelligence in<br />confrontation with power by going beyond the rigid ideological schemes<br />of political organizations, but also beyond the prevalent debates on the<br />crisis of militancy and the emergence of ‘‘secondary needs’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">40</span> It was born,<br />not by chance, in Bologna, where the model of ‘‘actually existing<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">38. Interview with Enrico Palandri, June 1999 (London).<br />39. The slogan ‘‘Diffundiamo notizie false che producono eventi veri’’ described a widespread<br />practice among the ‘‘free radio’’ stations.<br />40. Agnes Heller’s La teoria dei bisogni in Marx (Milan, 1974) was an influential text within<br />Seventy-Seven, as were the works of the post-structuralists Foucault, Deleuze, and Guattari.<br /></span><br />socialism’’ presented by the ‘‘Red Junta’’ of the ICP and ISP proved<br />unattractive to much of that city’s youth. The movement revolutionized<br />language with conscious research, retrieving the printing methods of the<br />underground culture. By using newspaper clippings, handwriting, and<br />typewritten white paper, it created a new printing format that allowed<br />flexible imagination to go beyond previous typographic schemes.<span style="font-size:85%;">41<br /></span>The intellectual most intrigued by, and as a sociologist at Bologna<br />University, one of the most informed about, the transversalist discourse<br />and praxis was Umberto Eco. He identified a fundamental switch in the<br />semiotic strategies of the new social movements from the moral<br />seriousness of the Marxist-Leninists to the irony of the students and<br />counter-cultural youth. The inherited wisdom of the Old and New Lefts<br />was turned on its head (‘‘More churches, less houses!’’) and was used to<br />torment the ICP. Eco claimed that the ‘‘new generations’’ were ‘‘living a<br />[:::]multiplicity of languages of the ‘avant guard’ in their daily lives’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">42</span> The<br />most interesting aspect for him was that ‘‘this language of the divided<br />subject, this proliferation of apparently uncoded messages, is understood<br />and practised to perfection by those who until today were extraneous to<br />high culture’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">43</span> In contrast, the linguistic experts of ‘‘high culture’’ were<br />only able to understand the ‘‘language of the divided subject’’ when it was<br />spoken in a laboratory and could not understand it ‘‘when spoken by the<br />masses’’.<span style="font-size:85%;">44</span> Eco’s analysis helps to explain why the irony and experimental<br />language of the ‘‘creatives’’ not only exasperated officialdom and the Old<br />Left, but also caused major rifts within the movement itself between the<br />‘‘creatives’’ and the ‘‘politicos’’, a fault line that can still be found in<br />contemporary anti-capitalist movements.<br /><br />CONCLUSION<br /><br />Seventy-Seven marked the end of the 1968 historical, cultural and political<br />cycle and the beginning of a new one, which, arguably, continued in Italy<br />during the 1980s and 1990s, above all through the centri sociali (squatted<br />social centres) movement. The movement’s long-term significance has<br />come to be seen as primarily socio-cultural, with its dominant characteristics<br />of counter-cultural and linguistic innovation, particularly in communicational<br />forms. Through the use of irony, detournement, sarcasm,<br />parody, satire, mockery, puns, and anagrams, antagonistic political<br />humour disoriented ‘‘the fundamental laws of human language [:::]<br />subverting the discipline of their valorization’’45. However, the intense<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">41. Scordino and Derive Approdi, ‘77.<br />42. Eco, ‘‘Hay otro idioma, el italo-indiano’’, p. 612.<br />43. Ibid.<br />44. Ibid.<br />45. Maurizio Torealta, ‘‘Painted Politics’’, in Italy: Autonomia, pp. 102–107, 104.<br /></span><br />political mockery deployed by the Metropolitan Indians, the movement’s<br />most visible if relatively short-lived counter-cultural tendency, was not<br />exclusively reserved for the political system and the institutional Left. The<br />more self-importantly ‘‘serious’’ sections of Seventy-Seven, generally those<br />more closely related to the vanguardist traditions of the New Left, were<br />also made the butt of movement in-jokes, so hampering and disarming<br />their attempts to gain ‘‘hegemony’’ over the movement.<br />The Metropolitan Indians and the transversalists of Radio Alice were<br />not the first to use irony as provocation, Dadaism or linguistic<br />experimentation as political action. Some preceding groups included the<br />Situationist International, the Provos in Amsterdam, Kommune 1 in<br />Germany, Black Mask in New York, and in Britain King Mob, who,<br />dressed as Santa Claus, went into a department store on Christmas 1968<br />and began handing items from the shelves to children as ‘‘presents’’. These<br />were later confiscated by the police while Santa was arrested.<span style="font-size:85%;">46</span> These<br />groups used individual actions and stunts to gain publicity for political<br />reasons, while the ‘‘creatives’’ of Seventy-Seven were a mass phenomenon<br />and part of a broader social movement, whose repertoire also included<br />armed violence, but whose over-riding characteristic was its desire to both<br />express itself through and play with words in a politically subversive<br />fashion. In this sense the ‘‘post-political’’ 1977 Movement broke with the<br />more ‘‘political’’ movement cycle of the 1960s and 1970s and presaged the<br />rise of the media-dominated ‘‘information society’’ in the eighties.<br />Thirty years have passed since the 1977 Movement changed the face of<br />Italian movement politics, before being stigmatized by the media, isolated<br />by the party system and criminalized and repressed by the state. Much of<br />the contemporary global anti-capitalist movement also relies on various<br />forms of humour and play, rather than the ideological browbeating of<br />vanguardism, let alone organized violence, to make their points. The use of<br />intense theatricality, camp mockery and ironic provocation is now<br />collectively organized as the ‘‘pink and silver’’ block of the alterglobalist<br />movement, whose most notable exponents are the pink fairies of Tactical<br />Frivolity, given to tickling riot police men with their feather dusters.<br />Today’s humour is probably gentler than the biting irony of the<br />Metropolitan Indians, capable of provoking the violence of outraged<br />ICP militants or a charge by the riot police, but the message is the same:<br />language is the site of political struggle and the derisory laughter born of<br />irony is one of the most potent weapons a social movement has,<br />humiliating the ‘‘powerful’’ and inspiring the ‘‘powerless’’.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">46. Gavin Grindon, e-mail.</span>http://autonomy-autonomias-autonomismo.blogspot.com/2009/05/laughter-that-will-bury-you-all-irony.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Patrick Cuninghame)2